BRU Winter 2025 - 2026: news, new routes, airlines

[Established02]

I was wondering what justifies all this sudden, new Chinese traffic.

Grok: The sharp rise in direct flights between China and Belgium (over 20 weekly services in 2025, up dramatically from pre-pandemic levels) is driven primarily by strong economic ties and the mutual 30-day visa-free policy introduced in late 2023 and extended through 2025–2026.China is Belgium’s third-largest non-EU trading partner (€60 bn bilateral trade in 2023), and Belgium has become a favoured European hub for Chinese investment in green energy, EV batteries, logistics and advanced manufacturing. More than 200 Chinese companies operate there, using the Port of Antwerp and Brussels’ central location as gateways to the EU. This generates significant business travel, trade delegations and executive traffic.The Chinese diaspora in Belgium remains small (≈15,000–21,000 people), contributing only marginally through family visits.Tourism has surged thanks to visa-free access: Belgian trips to China jumped over 300 % year-on-year in early 2024, with Belgium consistently ranking among Europe’s top 20 source markets. Chinese visitors to Belgium have also risen sharply, attracted by Brussels, Bruges and Antwerp.In short, the traffic boom is overwhelmingly justified by trade and investment flows, supercharged by the visa waiver that has simultaneously unlocked a wave of leisure travel in both directions.

[flywim]

Nice !
Do we know the plane?
But arriving at 20h20 is a bit late to use Brussels has a hub?

You still have a few feeder flights to Europe (LHR, CPH, MAD, BER, ...).
Plane is still unknown sadly.

Is 40 to 50 min enough?!

As far as i remember the MCT (minimum connecting time) in Brussels is 50min.

[lumumba]

You still have a few feeder flights to Europe (LHR, CPH, MAD, BER, ...).
Plane is still unknown sadly.

Is 40 to 50 min enough?!

As far as i remember the MCT (minimum connecting time) in Brussels is 50min.

Ok but still for today that would mean three destinations Manchester Geneva and Toulouse!
Still wondering this timetable?!

[theeuropean]

The demand also comes from still a massive decrease and demand between the US and China. Airlines from both those countries need to use the spare capacity somewhere else and for China it’s focused on Europe.
Furthermore the CAAC the Chinese aviation authority is known to be very bureaucratic and slow in granting rights so basically once an airline gets them they have to use them. Hence, Chinese airlines have to start routes asap or they risk losing the rights to fly the route. In my opinion there is too much capacity on Europe-China for the actual demand there is, plus with the Chinese airlines being allowed to fly over russia they gain time but it also makes routes cheap for them and unprofitable at least for European carriers, hence some like SAS and BA have stopped flying some routes to China and KLM and LH wanting a level playing field.

[BRU_AV_123]

Thanks to early information, Air China is expected to launch Beijing on January 2nd, 4x weekly.
CA963 would arrive in BRU at 20:20 and leave as CA964 at 22:00, which would be the latest long-haul flight from the airport.

This also means PEK would become double-daily (with Hainan Airlines) on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday - a total of 28x weekly to China.

I was hoping to see Chengdu once Air China would finally come to Brussels, but I guess Beijing makes more sense for international connections which they will need to make this work. The Hainan flight doesn't usually go out full afaik, so it will be very interesting to see the competition there. Advantage for Air China to be the only East Asia flight on most days that leaves in the evening, for which there is definitely still room for expansion at BRU.

[CRJ 900]

Big advantage for CA: they are a Star Alliance member flying to a *A hub. Hainan has not this benefit.

[lumumba]

Big advantage for CA: they are a Star Alliance member flying to a *A hub. Hainan has not this benefit.

Right!

That's why their schedule seems strange to me; if I had arrived in the morning, they could have taken advantage of flights to Africa.

[Miqvell]

Also to be taken with a pint of salt.
Air China is expected to launch Chengdu-Tianfu on January 1st, 3x weekly.
CA463 would arrive on Tuesday, Thursday, Sunday at 06h20 and depart as CA464 at 12h30.

[brabel]

Oh wow. Many Chinese destinations lately.
I really hope an Indian one will come too.

[rwandan-flyer]

Big advantage for CA: they are a Star Alliance member flying to a *A hub. Hainan has not this benefit.

Right!

That's why their schedule seems strange to me; if I had arrived in the morning, they could have taken advantage of flights to Africa.

Big advantage for CA: they are a Star Alliance member flying to a *A hub. Hainan has not this benefit.

Right!

That's why their schedule seems strange to me; if I had arrived in the morning, they could have taken advantage of flights to Africa.

Very limited benefit. On AF only flights to Conakry** have a good loads for passengers flying to and from China. Conakry is by the far the largest market for China in West and Central Africa (French Speaking countries) followed by Lubumbashi. CKY is the only Air France African flight where i see lots of Chinese. Outside Conakry, you have Panama and some South America countries

** CKY PEK : 42 025 pax
CKY Guangzhou : 21 184 pax (CZ left SkyTeam in 2019, AF ended flights to Guangzhou, but they have still in partnership)
CKY Chengdu : 14 129 pax
CKY Shanghai : 11 721 pax

Total : 89 059 pax in 2024 (average : 243 pax per day)

Abidjan, Dakar, Cotonou, Lome to name destinations both served by AF and SN, have not a vey huge demand to and from China if we compare to Dubai, North America and Europe. Very few Chinese on AF flights. Point to point demand, plus connecting to Montreal and Washington enable to fill quite well the aircraft. They use Kenya Airways / China Southern, Ethiopian or a Middle East airlines if they are served by Emirates or Qatar Airways.

I don't see Air China wanting to tap into this market via Brussels. But i m probably wrong.

[lumumba]

Big advantage for CA: they are a Star Alliance member flying to a *A hub. Hainan has not this benefit.

Right!

That's why their schedule seems strange to me; if I had arrived in the morning, they could have taken advantage of flights to Africa.

Big advantage for CA: they are a Star Alliance member flying to a *A hub. Hainan has not this benefit.

Right!

That's why their schedule seems strange to me; if I had arrived in the morning, they could have taken advantage of flights to Africa.

Very limited benefit. On AF only flights to Conakry** have a good loads for passengers flying to and from China. Conakry is by the far the largest market for China in West and Central Africa (French Speaking countries) followed by Lubumbashi. CKY is the only Air France African flight where i see lots of Chinese. Outside Conakry, you have Panama and some South America countries

** CKY PEK : 42 025 pax
CKY Guangzhou : 21 184 pax (CZ left SkyTeam in 2019, AF ended flights to Guangzhou, but they have still in partnership)
CKY Chengdu : 14 129 pax
CKY Shanghai : 11 721 pax

Total : 89 059 pax in 2024 (average : 243 pax per day)

Abidjan, Dakar, Cotonou, Lome to name destinations both served by AF and SN, have not a vey huge demand to and from China if we compare to Dubai, North America and Europe. Very few Chinese on AF flights. Point to point demand, plus connecting to Montreal and Washington enable to fill quite well the aircraft. They use Kenya Airways / China Southern, Ethiopian or a Middle East airlines if they are served by Emirates or Qatar Airways.

I don't see Air China wanting to tap into this market via Brussels. But i m probably wrong.

Thx.

[DannyVDB]

Also to be taken with a pint of salt.
Air China is expected to launch Chengdu-Tianfu on January 1st, 3x weekly.
CA463 would arrive on Tuesday, Thursday, Sunday at 06h20 and depart as CA464 at 12h30.

This is a short but interesting article on the topic.

https://www.chinatravelnews.com/article/187815

Danny

[Dan]

Big advantage for CA: they are a Star Alliance member flying to a *A hub. Hainan has not this benefit.

Right!

That's why their schedule seems strange to me; if I had arrived in the morning, they could have taken advantage of flights to Africa.

Maybe Air China is not that interested in tranfering pax via Bru, but having pax from Bru transfering to rest of China, Japan, New Zealand, Australia, Philippines and rest of Southeast Asia etc…
That’s why maybe this schedule suits them better.

Just my thoughts on that matter, in any case, good to see things are moving in good direction for l/h flights at Bru

[lumumba]

Big advantage for CA: they are a Star Alliance member flying to a *A hub. Hainan has not this benefit.

Right!

That's why their schedule seems strange to me; if I had arrived in the morning, they could have taken advantage of flights to Africa.

Maybe Air China is not that interested in tranfering pax via Bru, but having pax from Bru transfering to rest of China, Japan, New Zealand, Australia, Philippines and rest of Southeast Asia etc…
That’s why maybe this schedule suits them better.

Just my thoughts on that matter, in any case, good to see things are moving in good direction for l/h flights at Bru

Must be something like that .

[Miqvell]

Uzbekistan Airways will do charter services to Tashkent on 23, 25, 27, 28, 29, 30 December, operated by 787-9.

[Atlantis]

Uzbekistan Airways will do charter services to Tashkent on 23, 25, 27, 28, 29, 30 December, operated by 787-9.

And maybe checking the route and services on the ground at BRU? I know that there were negotiations to open a permanent route to Uzbekistan.

[OO-JFP]

Uzbekistan Airways will do charter services to Tashkent on 23, 25, 27, 28, 29, 30 December, operated by 787-9.

More likely with B.787-8?

[Miqvell]

Uzbekistan Airways will do charter services to Tashkent on 23, 25, 27, 28, 29, 30 December, operated by 787-9.

More likely with B.787-8?

KAYAK website says -9, that could be a mistake.

[Atlantis]

Today was the arrival of the first Air Senegal flight from Dakar.
Welcome Air Senegal

[sn26567]

Today was the arrival of the first Air Senegal flight from Dakar.
Welcome Air Senegal

With an all-white GetJet A320 registered LY-MAL. That doesn't look very serious!