Brussels Airport’s cargo operations is starting the year strong as overall freight volumes at the airport in January reached 55,051 tonnes, up 3 percent compared to the same month last year. 

Whilst trucked cargo volumes fell 9 percent in January, flown cargo volumes grew 6 percent, totalling 46,376 tonnes., as the full freighter segment saw a robust upturn of 15 percent and belly cargo jumped 19 percent, thanks to the increase in passenger flights. 

The airport reported that the number of flight movements iin January increased by 3 percent year on year to 13,508, with passenger flights up 5 percent compared to 2023. The number of cargo flights slipped 6 percent largely due to the drop in the number of express cargo flights, which pulled down express services 9 percent year on year in the same month. 

Amongst main import regions for Brussels, Asia led the way with a sizeable increase of 112 percent compared to January 2023, followed by Africa (-0.5 percent) and North America (-16 percent). The main export regions were Asia (-6 percent), followed by North America (-21 percent) and Africa (-11 percent).