13th Brussels Airport Aviation Awards

This year, Brussels Airport Company continues its annual tradition of presenting the Brussels Airport Aviation Awards. The airport bestows these awards to honour those airlines and partners that have distinguished themselves during the preceding year in terms of network and cargo development, environment and safety, and punctuality and performance.

The Network Development Awards go to airlines that have launched new routes or achieved significant growth in passenger or cargo volumes.

The 5 nominees in this category were Aeroflot, airBaltic, Loganair, Ryanair and TAP Air Portugal. TAP Air Portugal was ultimately chosen to receive the Short Haul Network Development Award. This was largely thanks to the new route to Porto and the 18% growth in passengers in 2019.

This year, there was not one but two winners in the Long Haul Network Development category. United Airlines received the award thanks to the introduction of the Boeing 787-10 at our airport and to achieving 5% growth in 2019. Air Canada also operated a new aircraft, the B787-9 to our airport and enjoyed a growth of 9%. Ethiopian, Etihad and Thai Airways International were the other nominees in this category.

Turkish Cargo enjoyed considerable growth this past year at our airport. Last year, they replaced the weekly flight to Istanbul with an A300 with three A330 flights per week. The other airlines nominated in this category were Avianca Cargo and Sichuan Cargo.

The BRUcargo Award is intended to draw attention to the partners in the BRUcargo field. This year the award goes to Nallian. Last year they made a considerable contribution to the growth of the BRUcloud, the open sharing platform of BRUcargo and helped make the operations at BRUcargo more efficient and transparent. Other nominees in this category were Brinks and Cathay Pacific Cargo.

In 2019, Skyfast, the winner of the logistic provider award, was responsible for the development of animal transport at our airport. They also actively participated in the development of both Air Cargo Belgium and other digital initiatives and projects. Bpost, DSV, Freight4You and Nippon Express were also nominated in this category.

The Environment and Safety Awards are presented to airlines or partners that have made a special contribution to the environment and the on-going improvement of safety standards and awareness.

The Environment Award went to Aviapartner. They began the implementation of a Green Partner Charter for all their projects. This initiative is being constantly monitored and adjusted where necessary. In addition Aviapartner also introduced a fully electric airside car fleet in 2019.

DHL Aviation stands for security in its organisation, documentation and implementation. They regularly perform audits and monitor the required action points quickly and accurately. DHL is an excellent partner in all the initiatives to improve the security levels at Brussels Airport.

This year, we are also presenting a Diamond Award. The Diamond Award is not presented each year, but when it is, it goes to an organisation or person that consistently contributes to the successful development of Brussels Airport. This year, the Diamond Award goes to Belgium Slot Coordination. They ensure that the demand for available time slots are matched to the capacity of the airport. The employees of Belgium Slot Coordination, under the leadership of Didier Hocq, are known for their proactive attitude and are always prepared to help airlines obtain the best possible time slot. In addition, they ensure that all flights are constantly monitored for punctuality and impact on the environment.

The Performance and Punctuality Awards are presented to passenger and cargo airlines that excel in punctuality and performance. Punctuality is the best on-time performance, that is with an arrival or departure within 15 minutes of the scheduled time. The performance for cargo is calculated using the number of weekly flights, number of destinations, total quantity of cargo flown, cargo per flight and the growth in cargo tonnage.

The airline that contributed most last year to the development of BRUcargo was Qatar Airways Cargo. They operate 8 flights a week between Brussels and Doha. Other nominees were Asiana Cargo, Emirates Cargo, Ethiopian Airlines Cargo and Singapore Airlines Cargo.

In 2019, Air Europa was the most punctual airline with an on-time performance of more than 82% for the departures from our airport. Air Europa performed slightly better that the other airlines nominated in this category Alitalia British Airways, Eurowings and Finnair.

The Punctuality Award for Long Haul Airlines goes to Cathay Pacific. Last year the airline flew to Hong Kong with an on-time performance of more than 83%. Other nominees in this category were ANA, Delta Air Lines, Hainan Airlines, and THAI Airways International.