The 17th Brussels Airport Aviation Awards Ceremony

As is the annual tradition, Brussels Airport presented the Brussels Airport Aviation Awards on Tuesday evening, 20 February. These awards are Brussels Airport’s way of honouring the airlines and partners that, in the course of 2023, have excelled in the areas of punctuality and performance, network development and safety and the environment. Ten awards were presented during the award ceremony held at the airport in the presence of Brussels Airport's partners.

Brussels Airport has been organising the Aviation Awards since 2007 to reward airlines and partners for outstanding performance. This year, awards were presented in 10 different categories.

Performance & Punctuality Awards

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

The Punctuality Awards is presented to the airlines that clock up the best on-time performance. In 2023, Finnair was the most punctual airline. It operates three daily scheduled flights to Helsinki and is a past winner of the award in this category in 2009. Finnair performed slightly better than the other airlines nominated in this category: Air Europa, Croatia Airlines, KLM and Transavia.

Long Haul Airline Punctuality Award: Hainan Airlines

This year's Punctuality Award for long-haul airlines goes to Hainan Airlines. Hainan Airlines operates a daily non-stop flight to Beijing and flies three times a week to Shenzhen. The other airlines nominated in this category were Delta Air Lines, Emirates, Ethiopian Airlines and Qatar Airways.

The airline that contributed most last year to the development of Brucargo is Qatar Airways Cargo. Already a winner in 2019, 2020 and 2021, the airline is deeply committed to Brussels Airport thanks to its worldwide network. The other nominees were Air Belgium, Ethiopian Airlines Cargo, Sichuan Airlines and Singapore Airlines Cargo.

BRUCargo Awards

Brussels Airport presents to specific awards to stakeholders and partners in the cargo sector to recognise innovation, growth and partnership.

The Brucargo Award was introduced in 2012 to shine the spotlight on our partners at Brucargo. This year, the award goes to the ACIC for raising the profile of live animal handling, for their 24/7 dedication to animal welfare and for their huge success four years after setting up at the airport. The other nominees in this category were Aviapartner Cargo, Belgian Customs, Hazgo and Nippon Express.

In this category, Nippon Express won for its ongoing cooperation and shared vision of future Japanese connectivity, as well as for its active participation in pharma.aero and Air Cargo Belgium. Deny Cargo, Expeditors International, Herfurth Logistics and Kuehne + Nagel were nominated alongside Nippon Express in this category.

Environment & Safety Awards

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

The Environment Award went to Brussels Airlines. They were the first airline to use SAF - Sustainable Aviation Fuel - at Brussels Airport and the first to apply for the new SAF 2024 incentive. Brussels Airlines is a very active participant in the Waste Charter working group and has introduced many new measures to reduce waste, particularly in the area of in-flight catering. Brussels Airlines is also an active member of the Collaborative Environmental Management initiative (CEM), which brings together pilots and air traffic controllers to make aviation more sustainable by reducing the environmental impact of flight operations.

Finally, the airline has just taken delivery of its very first A320neo and unveiled its 9 Principles of Respectful Flying.

The constructive cooperation of skeyes ensures a constant improvement in safety culture and appropriate risk management. The willingness to meticulously share information, results and proposals for improvement is a fine example of best practice. This cooperation perfectly reflects Brussels Airport's values of collaboration, commitment, care and courage.

Network Development Awards

The Network Development Awards recognise airlines that have started new routes or achieved significant growth in passenger numbers or cargo volumes.

The Cargo Airline Award 2023 went to United Airlines, which was instrumental in establishing a gateway for pharmaceutical products in the United States by promoting Brussels Airport among pharmaceutical shippers at every opportunity on the strength of its three daily passenger flights. The other nominated airlines were Air Belgium, Qatar Airways Cargo, Sichuan Airlines and Singapore Airlines Cargo.

In this category, Vueling came out on top thanks to the opening of new routes to Bilbao and Seville, and the increase in frequencies to Alicante, Malaga, Valencia and Barcelona, generating growth of 27% for the airline. The other nominees were Royal Jordanian, SunExpress, Transavia and TUI fly.

Hainan Airlines won the award for launching flights to Shenzhen and increasing the frequency of flights to Beijing to offer a daily service. It is promoting Brussels as its main gateway to Europe and has seen its growth multiply by 6. The other airlines nominated in this category were Air Canada, Etihad Airways, Flynas and Qatar Airways.

Brussels Airport congratulates all winners and nominees on their outstanding performances.