Airport type Public Focus city for Ryanair Code CRL Phone +32 902 02 490 | Serves Charleroi, Belgium Elevation AMSL 614 ft / 187 m Elevation 187 m Municipality Brussels | |
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Owner Government of Walloon Region Operator Société Wallonne des Aéroports Address Rue des Frères Wright 8, 6041 Charleroi, Belgium Profiles | ||
Brussels south charleroi airport
Brussels South Charleroi Airport (BSCA), also called Charleroi Airport or Gosselies Airport, (IATA: CRL, ICAO: EBCI) is an international airport, located in Gosselies, a part of the city of Charleroi. The airport is 4 nautical miles (7.4 km; 4.6 mi) north of Charleroi and 46 km (29 mi) south of central Brussels, in Wallonia (Belgium). The Aéropole, one of the Science Parks of Wallonia, is located near the airport.
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Brussels south charleroi airport
Early years
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.
During World War II, the site was arranged as an Advanced Landing Ground (A-87) for the allied air forces, from 14 September 1944 until 10 August 1945.
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.
Development since the 1990s
Operations at Brussels South Charleroi 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 Brussels South 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 Brussels South Charleroi, such as Wizz Air. The Polish airline Air Polonia operated services from here 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.
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).
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. 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. However, in March 2012, the Commission reopened the case in order to take this judgement into account.
On 20 September 2016,Air Corsica announced that they launch four weekly flights to Ajaccio (on Wednesday (from 3 May), Thursday, Saturday (from 1 June) and Sunday),starting 26 March 2017, and five weekly flights to Bastia,(on Tuesday (from beginning of July), Wednesday, Thursday (beginning of July), Saturday and Sunday (from 4 June)), starting 29 March 2017. Air Corsica will be the first scheduled airline at Charleroi.
On 29 December 2016,Belavia announced that they launch three weekly flights to Minsk with Embraer 175 (on Monday, Thursday and Saturday),starting 27 April 2017.
Airlines and destinations
The following airlines operate regular scheduled and charter flights at Brussels South Charleroi Airport:
Bus
Local TEC buses run between the airport and Charleroi railway station.
There are also several shuttles between different cities in the neighbouring countries (Luxembourg, Metz, Thionville, Lille) plus a regular coach service that runs from the airport to Brussels-South railway station. Also, a special bus (Airport Express – A) operates from the airport to Charleroi-South railway station. A combined bus and train ticket to any other Belgian railway station can be bought in the terminal.
Car
The airport is accessible by the highway from Brussels, Liège or Lille.