Qatar Airways has further expanded its Brussels cargo operation by offering more flights and main deck capacity. Consequently, BRU is increasingly playing the role of European hub for the Middle East freight carrier.
As of April, QR Cargo has replaced one of their Airbus A330 freighters by a larger Triple Seven all-cargo aircraft, thus upping the capacity offered to the Benelux market by about 35 tons. This
freighter swop is on the weekly route Halifax, Brussels, Doha.
The Gulf airline already operates seven A330F weekly flights into Brussels in addition to eight passenger services with their cargo-friendly new Boeing 787 and Airbus A350 fleet
members.
Additional flight to come
The next move is just around the corner: In May, QR Cargo will introduce its eighth weekly service to Brussels by adding another Airbus A330F to service this rapidly growing destination. It will
operate from Doha to Brussels and return.
QR Cargo’s traffic growth at BRU is much to the delight of Steven Polmans, the airport’s Head of Cargo, as shown by this statement:
“In just a few years, Qatar Airways Cargo has grown to become one of our biggest cargo players at the airport, offering direct capacity from the Middle East as well as Africa into Brussels. These
flights contributed tremendously to our growth in, for example, perishables at the airport.”
Kudos to Brussels Airport
Ulrich Ogiermann, Chief Officer Cargo of Qatar Airways reacts to Polman’s words in a courteous manner by saying:
“The tremendous support from Brussels Airport and our global customers has empowered our rapid growth in Brussels.”
Uli went on to say:
“Meeting our customers’ business needs is fundamental and we strive to provide the most strategic freighter routes to connect Brussels with the world’s major trade markets via our Doha hub. We
will continue to offer our best specialist products, QR Pharma and QR Fresh, and quality services to uphold the growing needs of perishable and pharma shipments in these markets.”
Qatar Cargo contributed substantially to the continuous volume growth at BRU. In Q1 of 2017, the tonnage leapt by as much as 13.3 percent in a year-on-year comparison, totaling 136,000 tons. The
vast majority of the imports or exports handled at Brussels were on the account of all freighter flights.
Heiner Siegmund
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