Brussels South Charleroi Airport
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Charleroi Brussels South, also called Brussels South Airport or Brussels South Charleroi Airport (BSCA), (IATA: CRL, ICAO: EBCI) is located near Charleroi, 46km (28.75 miles) from central Brussels, in Wallonia (Belgium). 2,166,360 passengers used the airport in 2006.
A new terminal, currently under construction, is expected to open in 2007.
History
The first aeronautical activities in Gosselies date back to 1919 (flying school, then aeronautical maintenance activities the following year). The British aircraft manufacturer Fairey Aviation settled a subsidiary Avions Fairey on the site (then known as Mont des Bergers) in 1931.
Gosselies airfield became a public aerodrome after World War II, but the main activities of the site remained aeronautical constructions (installation of SABCA in 1954, then SONACA in 1978, taking the place of Fairey).
In the seventies, the Belgian national airline Sabena launched a Liège-Charleroi-London service, but this was soon dropped because of poor results. Gosselies was left with almost no passengers traffic (the airport being mainly used for private or pleasure flights, training flights and occasional charters to leisure destinations around the Mediterranean Sea or to Algeria.
Charleroi Airport finally took off in the nineties, with a new commercial management structure (BSCA - Brussels South Charleroi Airport) and the arrival of Irish low cost airline Ryanair in 1997, which opened it first continental base at Charleroi a few years later.
Although criticised for the subsidies paid by the Walloon government to help its installation, Ryanair opened new routes from Charleroi (they also closed two destinations : London-Stansted and Liverpool, although Stansted is being re-introduced in June 2007). Other low-cost carriers later joined Ryanair in Charleroi, such as Wizz Air and Air Service Plus (later replaced by OnAir). Former Polish airline Air Polonia operated services from Charleroi to Warsaw and Katowice before being declared bankrupt in August 2004.
In September 2006 it was announced that Moroccan low-cost airline Jet4you would launch three weekly flights to Casablanca (on Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday) starting 1 November 2006, in code share cooperation with Belgian airline Jetairfly.
Ryanair assistance
The European Commission objected to assistance the airport offered to Ryanair, since the airport is owned by the Wallonia regional government and thus the discounts and other benefits could be considered state aid.
Airlines and Destinations
- Blue Air (Bucharest-Băneasa)
- Jet4you (Casablanca)
- On Air (Pescara)
- Ryanair (Carcassonne, Dublin, Faro, Girona, Glasgow-Prestwick, Grenoble, London-Stansted [starts 1 June, 2007], Madrid, Malaga , Marseille, Milan-Bergamo, Nîmes, Pisa, Rome-Ciampino, Salzburg, Shannon, Stockholm-Skavsta, Turin, Valencia, Valladolid, Venice-Treviso)
- Wizz Air (Budapest, Katowice, Ljubljana, Warsaw)