Brussels Airport: Ryanair tests itself against Vueling and Gulf airlines offer long haul connections

Brussels Airport's passenger traffic was badly hit in the global financial crisis. Although it recovered in 2011, it was only when two leading LCCs established bases at the airport in 2014 that traffic growth really took off. Ryanair's battle with Vueling at Brussels, also played out in a number of airports across Europe, provides the Irish LCC with a meaningful calibration of its attempts to improve customer service and its appeal to business passengers. It also seems to have stimulated the airport's leading airline Brussels Airlines into its own European route expansion.

Although there has been an increase in traffic to intercontinental destinations over the past decade, this rapid growth of LCCs has further sharpened the airport's already high focus on European traffic. Long haul accounts for fewer than one in five seats at Brussels and is mainly centred on North America and Africa. Destinations in Asia Pacific are reached mainly via other airports (principally Frankfurt and other Lufthansa Group hubs). The growth of Gulf airlines at Brussels provides competition to these hubs in providing long haul connectivity to the Belgian capital.