In 2021, Belgian airports had about 13.5 million passengers and just over 180,000 flights. The COVID-19 crisis still had a large impact on the number of passengers (-62% compared to 2019) and flights (-44% compared to 2019).

With 61% in 2021, the occupancy rate^[1] of aircrafts had not yet returned to the level of 2019 (77%). In the second half of the year, however, there was a slight improvement. In 2021, the occupancy rate remained low in the winter months and recovered to some extent from late spring. The number of flights also recovered somewhat from the summer months, but remained well below the figures of 2019.

With regard to the year 2020, the months of April, May and June not only had very few flights, but also the occupancy rate was very low, especially in the months of April and May (11% and 9% respectively).

Freight transport (including postal services) continues to rise sharply in 2021. 2,160,640 tonnes of goods were transported mainly via Liège and Zaventem: this is an increase of 46% compared to 2019 and of 30% compared to 2020.

^[1] Occupancy rate = the number of passengers divided by the number of passenger seats available.