| Brussels South Charleroi Airport Charleroi/Brussels South Aéroport de Charleroi Bruxelles Sud Luchthaven Brussel Zuid Charleroi |
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| IATA: CRL – ICAO: EBCI | |||
| Summary | |||
| Airport type | Public | ||
| Owner | Government of Walloon Region | ||
| Operator | SOWAER (Société Wallonne des Aéroports) | ||
| Serves | Brussels | ||
| Location | Charleroi | ||
| Hub for | Ryanair | ||
| Elevation AMSL | 614 ft / 187 m | ||
| Coordinates | |||
| Website | |||
| Map | |||
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CRL
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| Runways | |||
| Direction | Length | Surface | |
| m | ft | ||
| 07/25 | 2,550 | 8,366 | Asphalt |
| Statistics (2010) | |||
| Passengers | 5,195,372 | ||
| Source: Belgian AIP at EUROCONTROL | |||
Brussels South Charleroi Airport (BSCA), also called Charleroi Airport, (IATA: CRL, ICAO: EBCI) is located in Gosselies, a part of the city of Charleroi, 46 kilometres (29 mi) south of central Brussels, in Wallonia (Belgium).
A new terminal opened in January 2008. It has a capacity of up to 5 million passengers a year, which means that it has reached it maximum capacity in 2010 (5 195 372 passengers). It has been awarded in 2011 as the second best low-cost airport by Skytrax.com after London Stansted Airport.[1]
The Airport is also home of some important Flight Schools like Belgian Flight School which offers complete pilot training and Brussels Aviation School offering Private Pilot and Night Flight Qualification training using Ciglos Aviation Training Methodology as well as other qualifications in partnership with BFS.
The Aéropole, one of the Science Parks of Wallonia, is located near the airport.
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The first aeronautical activities in Gosselies date back to 1919 as a 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 1970s, 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 passenger 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.
Operations at Charleroi Airport grew in the 1990s, with a new commercial management structure (BSCA - Brussels South Charleroi Airport) and the arrival of Irish low cost airline Ryanair in 1997, which opened its 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 was re-introduced in June 2007 before being suspended again). Other low-cost carriers later joined Ryanair in Charleroi, such as Wizz Air and Air Service Plus (later replaced by On Air). The Polish airline Air Polonia operated services from Charleroi to Warsaw and Katowice before going 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.
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.[2] However, the Court of First Instance (a European Union court) decided on 17 December 2008 that the Commission's decision finding that illegal aid had been granted to Ryanair should be annulled and quashed as being erroneous in law. The Commission has accepted the CFI's judgment and has not appealed the CFI's judgment.
| Airlines | Destinations |
|---|---|
| Freebird Airlines | Antalya |
| Jet4you | Casablanca, Nador, Oujda, Tangier Seasonal: Al Hoceima |
| Jetairfly | Algiers, Alicante, Djerba, Casablanca, Fes, Heraklion, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Istanbul-Atatürk, Istanbul-Sabiha Gökçen, Monastir, Murcia, Oran, Palma de Mallorca [begins 31 March], Rhodes, Tangier, Tenerife-South, Toulon Seasonal: Al Hoceima, Athens, Enfidha |
| Ryanair | Alghero [resumes 29 March 2012], Agadir, Alicante, Ancona, Arrecife, Barcelona, Bergamo, Bologna, Bordeaux, Bratislava, Brindisi, Cagliari, Carcassonne, Chania [begins 29 March], Corfu [begins 29 March], Dublin, Edinburgh, Faro, Fes, Fuerteventura, Gothenburg-City, Ibiza, Kaunas, Kraków, Lamezia Terme, Lappeenranta, Larnaca, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Madrid, Málaga, Manchester, Marrakech, Marseille, Memmingen [begins 29 March], Montpellier, Nador, Nîmes, Nyköping, Oslo-Rygge, Oujda, Palma de Mallorca, Perpignan, Pescara, Pisa, Porto, Riga, Rodez [begins 29 March], Rome-Ciampino, Santander, Seville, Stockholm-Skavsta, Tangier, Tenerife-South, Thessaloniki, Trapani, Treviso, Trieste, Turin, Turku [begins April 3], Valencia, Valladolid, Verona, Wrocław, Zaragoza Seasonal: Almería, Bari, Biarritz, Bergerac, Figari, Genoa, Kos, La Rochelle, Perugia, Pula, Reus, Rhodes, Volos, Zadar |
| Wizz Air | Belgrade, Bucharest-Băneasa, Budapest, Sofia, Warsaw |
| Year | Passengers | Evolution |
|---|---|---|
| 2001 | 773 431 | - |
| 2002 | 1 271 979 | 64,45% |
| 2003 | 1 803 587 | 41,19% |
| 2004 | 2 034 797 | 12,81% |
| 2005 | 1 873 349 | 8,61% |
| 2006 | 2 166 360 | 15,64% |
| 2007 | 2 458 255 | 13,47% |
| 2008 | 2 957 026 | 20,28% |
| 2009 | 3 937 187 | 33,14% |
| 2010 | 5 195 372 | 32% |
On 8 of April 2011, a Dutch F-16 had to make an emergency landing because of a technical failure of one of its landing gears. The plane landed on its belly. The pilot did not suffer any injuries.[3]
Local TEC buses run between the airport and Charleroi train station[4]. Also, a regular coach service runs from the airport to Brussels-South railway station.
A special bus (Airport Express - A) will take you to Charleroi-South railway station. A combined ticket bus + train to any Belgian train station can be bought in the terminal.
The airport is accessible by the highway from Brussels, Liège or Lille.
This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the Air Force Historical Research Agency.
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