2016 Brussels South Charleroi Airport (CRL/EBCI) latest news

[Passenger]

They are at 100pc capacity during peak hours.
Only off peak hour can be improved, or load factor.

If I look at today's departures between 07h00 and 09h00, CRL is not at "100% capacity" at all.

2pc growth is a good result it seems

Given the general trend in aviation and the specific growth of CRL's leading carrier, I don't think 2% is good.

Given the lower demand for travel to Belgium / flying to Belgium after the attacks of 22/03, 2% is very good indeed.

[sn26567]

BSCA announced a 2% increase for June 2016 versus June 2015

Next to the newspapers' comments, there is the official announcement: https://www.aviation24.be/airports/brussel ... ne-2016-2/

[Passenger]

Apart from a reminder "arrive three hours before take off", newspaper De Standaard wrote: "...Midden juli komt er een nieuwe veiligheidszone in de Charleroise luchthaven, waarin passagiers worden gescreend voordat ze de terminal betreden...". Translated: Mid July, a new safety zone will open at CRL where the passengers will be screened before they enter the terminal.

I hope they are not going to install the same nonsense as the police unions demanded for Brussels Airport.

I'm afraid that the same non sense will be coming/

Obelix (journo PagTour) was at CRL on Wednesday, and he confirms this tent for pre-checks:
http://pagtour.info/archives/3021

[sean1982]

They are at 100pc capacity during peak hours.
Only off peak hour can be improved, or load factor.

If I look at today's departures between 07h00 and 09h00, CRL is not at "100% capacity" at all.

If you're just a "passenger" as you claim, how would you know that?

[jan_olieslagers]

By consulting the publicly available information, perhaps?

And btw it is not because I choose the nick "Jan Olieslagers" that I claim to be Jan Olieslagers - far be that from me!

[Passenger]

They are at 100pc capacity during peak hours.
Only off peak hour can be improved, or load factor.

If I look at today's departures between 07h00 and 09h00, CRL is not at "100% capacity" at all.

If you're just a "passenger" as you claim, how would you know that?

Let me explain to you how I've managed to get that top secret information. But please do not share it with others:

1. Open Flightradar24 by adding "http://" before "Flightradar24" and ".com" after "Flightradar24" (please ignore the " " and please don't add empty spaces!)

2. If you have managed to do this, you should be forwarded to this hidden web page:
https://www.flightradar24.com

3. Search the "Search" option

4. Replace the word "Search" by the word "Charleroi"

5. Click enter

6. Now comes the most difficult step: you have to find the airport. Contrary to what the name would suggest, "Brussels South Charleroi Airport" is not close to Brussels, but close to Charleroi.

7. The airport is marked as a blue ball just above the name "Charleroi".

8. Click on that blue ball.

9. A pop-up window with detailled info about CRL will now open.

10. Now choose "Arrivals" (which shows the arriving aircraft), or choose "Departures" (which shows the departing aircraft) or choose "On the ground" (which shows the aircraft... yep).

- - - - - -

Another possibility to get CRL's flight info (but only to be used by advanced internet users) is to ignore the above 10 instructions and use these two shortcuts:

Arrivals:
https://www.flightradar24.com/airport/crl/arrivals

Departures:
https://www.flightradar24.com/airport/crl/departures

Now, let's check today's departures - one of the busiest holiday days. Between 07h00 and 10h00, me thinks there are a lot of slots available. Hence my statement "Charleroi is not at 100% capacity".

07:00 FR3745 to Pisa
07:05 FR1382 to Zaragoza
07:15 FR4566 to Figari
07:20 FR6055 to Treviso
07:30 FR6105 to Rome
08:45 W62282 to Budapest
08:45 W63082 to Bucharest
08:50 FR6902 to Girona
09:10 FR1197 to Athens
09:10 W63352 to Cluj-Napoca
09:25 W67866 to Debrecen
09:55 FR5463 to Madrid

[cathay belgium]

Hi,

Now that is a clear statement !
How many gates has CRL?

Guess he proved 100 percent right! , not even 50 percent or less I guess...
Who needs another terminal....

CXB

[Acid-drop]

Many sources mention the current terminal was made for 1.3 M pax, other sources mention 3M pax. Anyway, thats far from the 7M Of last year.
They are already talking years about extention.
The work were planned for this year.

The new T2 will open in Nov 2016, will allow 2.6 millions additional pax. Its planned to use it only during peak hours.

[Stij]

From my personal experience...

There are enough parking stands, gates and check in desks, but all the rest is overcrowded: security, restaurants and especially the gate areas... at rush hour the place is a mess.

Stij

[sean1982]

There are enough parking stands but not with gate access. It's funny that you choose between 07 and 10 off course because that aint peak time at CRL. Peak time is between 06.30 and 07.30. Ryanair had to schedule some flights at 06.25 even, so the aircraft are being pushed onto a taxiway, waiting there to start their engines so other aircraft can be pushed onto stand. the same procedure goes between 22u and 23u although the aircraft more staggered at that point. Furthermore does ATC regularly have to issue a "no training flight" NOTAM to be able to cope with the traffic.

So has the airport reached it's limit after peak times, it certainly has. Off course flightradar and google don't tell you these operational issues. Maybe you are a "passenger" after all.

[Passenger]

It's funny that you choose between 07 and 10 off course because that aint peak time at CRL. Peak time is between 06.30 and 07.30.

What you call “peak time” between 06h30 and 07h30, is only a rush of half an hour just after the opening of the airport after the night curfew (06h30-23h00).

For this morning (a very busy holiday Saturday), Flightradar shows these flights:

Number of departing flights between 06h30 and 07h00:13.
Number of departing flights between 07h01 and 07h30: 3.
Number of departing flights between 07h31 and 08h00: 0.
Number of departing flights between 08h01 and 09h00: 3.

This proofs that 06h30-07h30 is no peak period. Only 06h30-07h00 is. So Charleroi has not reached its limits during peak times. The only problem Charleroi has, is that it has allowed too many departures between 06h30-07h00, keeping in mind its facilities airside and in the airport (parking stands, desks, gates, security,...). When the slot coordinator would shuffle a bit, the airport wouldn’t be a mess like Stij reports it is. Passengers for Mallorca or Malaga don't need to be there on time for a meeting at 08h30. Arriving there at 09h or 09h30 would be fine for them too.

These are all flights Flightradar shows for this morning:

06:20 FR4522 Milan (BGY)
06:30 FR8073 Tangier (TNG)
06:30 TB6483 Palma de Mallorca (PMI)
06:35 FR1928 Malaga (AGP)
06:40 FR201 Copenhagen (CPH)
06:50 FR6098 Oslo (RYG)
06:50 FR1386 Porto (OPO)
06:50 FR4868 Perugia (PEG)
06:55 FR3239 Manchester (MAN)
06:55 FR1057 Warsaw (WMI)
07:00 FR6105 Rome (CIA)
07:00 TB6963 Tangier (TNG)
07:00 FR3745 Pisa (PSA)
07:05 FR6446 Thessaloniki (SKG)
07:15 FR4566 Figari (FSC)
07:20 FR8021 Carcassonne (CCF)
08:25 TB6025 Malaga (AGP)
08:45 W63082 Bucharest (OTP)
08:50 FR6902 Girona (GRO)
09:10 FR1197 Athens (ATH)
09:55 FR5463 Madrid (MAD)
10:00 W67718 Skopje (SKP)
10:15 FR1384 Perpignan (PGF)
10:15 W64328 Sofia (SOF)
10:35 FR2121 Prague (PRG)
10:45 FR2101 Bucharest (OTP)
11:30 FR8023 Carcassonne (CCF)
11:35 FR9053 Alicante (ALC)
11:45 FR6456 Ibiza (IBZ)

[lumumba]

Last time we traveled tre Charleroi it was very very crowdy realy too much.
I remember Charleroi some years ago today I try to avoid.

[Acid-drop]

All planes spending the night in CRL have to leave asap after the curfew, it aint that hard to understand i think...
The same thing happenbefore 23h00
If CRL had no cerfew it would be a different story

[sean1982]

All planes spending the night in CRL have to leave asap after the curfew, it aint that hard to understand i think...
The same thing happenbefore 23h00
If CRL had no cerfew it would be a different story

He does understand, just chooses to ignore to proof a point Ryanair doesnt make that amount of money by having its planes sitting on the ground

[Passenger]

All planes spending the night in CRL have to leave asap after the curfew, it aint that hard to understand i think... The same thing happenbefore 23h00. If CRL had no cerfew it would be a different story.

No, they don't have to leave asap after the night curfew. The airlines want them to leave asap after the curfew. All CRL has to do to end the early morning chaos, is spread a few slots to 15-30 minutes later. As long as the last arrival from an aircraft is scheduled before 23h00, it can maintain the same number of flights.

it aint that hard to understand i think...

Totally agree. CRL just has to tell the airlines that they (=CRL) run the airport.

[sn26567]

Expanded frequency by Ryanair planned from 26MAR17:

Warsaw Chopin – Brussels Charleroi Increase from 12 to 14 weekly

Source: Airline Route/Routes online

[Passenger]

Today's Pagtour newsletter:

"...Il nous revient qu’une lutte fratricide entre les aéroports wallons a lieu actuellement. BSCA (Charleroi) n’a jamais supporté que Liège Airport se consacre à autre chose que le fret, c’est-à-dire aux passagers.

BMI a fermé la ligne Liège-Munich, trop tôt sans doute. Le TO chinois qui débarquait ses passagers à Liège Airport avant leur tour d’Europe ne vient plus, faute d’avions. Il semble que la compagnie russe qui les transportait ait besoin de ses avions sur des lignes plus rentables, comme la Turquie par exemple, nouvel allié de la Russie.

Tout cela faisait bien plaisir à BSCA, dit-on sous cape. Mais ce n’était pas encore assez : il reste une ligne régulière à Liège, celle d’Air Corsica. Et l’on dit que BSCA est occupé à soudoyer la compagnie corse pour récupérer les connexions depuis la Corse vers Charleroi plutôt que Liège en proposant des conditions d’escales et de taxes plus intéressantes qu’à Liège !

On se demande quelle sera la réaction du Ministre Wallon des aéroports (et du Tourisme), le CDH René Collin, d’autant que la nouvelle Présidence de Liège AIRPORT est aujourd’hui occupée par Marie-Dominique Simonet , CDH aussi et ex Ministre de l’Economie en Fédération Wallonie Bruxelles.

Si tout ceci est vrai (et nos sources sont sûres), c’est assez affligeant, non?..."

Source:
http://pagtour.info/archives/5817

In brief: CRL has offered Air Corsica far better conditions then they have at LGG if they move their passenger flights from LGG to CRL. LGG isn't pleased with this.

[Acid-drop]

it's now confirmed, air corsica is moving to charleroi.
There has always been a lot of political stress in wallonia between Liège and Charleroi. If you give a candy to one of the kids, you need the same candy for the brother. And this is why Charleroi, despite being a 3rd world city, has somewhat survived it.
It's clear from the start that pax would be for CRL and cargo for LGG. Nothing new here in fact.
But this is giving hope to MST, which would probably be smaller if LGG had pax traffic.

[Desert Rat]

Hey Lidjeu,
Ten na nin t'sau t'fai d'allei t'geu pou'n rin dire?

Hey Liegeman
You are not fed-up of all your non-sense...keep your silly comments for yourself. (Cf.third world city)...

[sn26567]

it's now confirmed, air corsica is moving to Charleroi.

The celebration cake in CRL during today's press conference.



Flights to Ajaccio and Bastia from Summer 2017 season.