Brussels South Charleroi Airport
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The Brussels South Charleroi Airport (French Aéroport de Charleroi Bruxelles -Sud ) Airport ( IATA code: CRL, ICAO code: EBCI ) is located just 5 km north of the city of Charleroi. The Belgian capital Brussels is located about 50 km north of the airport. It is smaller than the Brussels Airport, but has now behind this the second highest number of visitors of all Belgian airports. The airport is often called by the local population Aéroport de Charleroi- Gosselies.
History
First flight activities were made in 1919 and the British aircraft manufacturer Fairey Aviation, opened here in 1931 a branch operation.
During the Second World War units of the Air Force used the airfield Gosselies between 1940 and 1944. According conquest of the area by the U.S. Army, the USAAF used the institution designated by the Allies as Airfield A.87 airfield, between September 1944 and 1945 initially militarily on.
The aircraft was continued after the war, and later in the form of SABCA and SONACA companies. The airport was used with the exception of an attempt to Sabena in the 1970s with the route Liege - Charleroi- London, hardly for commercial air traffic. Instead landed residential and light aircraft at Charleroi - Gosselies.
However, at the present form of the airport and regular passenger traffic, it only came in the 1990s under a new leadership and by the alignment as a cheap airport.
The BSCA - Brussels South Charleroi Airport in 2001 was the first continental European base of the Irish budget airline Ryanair. The airport was thus for the first time in strong competition with the larger Brussels Airport. On 3 February 2004 the European Commission decided that about 75 % of the subsidies that Ryanair had received from Brussels South Charleroi Airport government, unlawfully had and would have to be repaid by Ryanair. Michael O'Leary subsequently announced to legal action. This led in December 2008 to the preliminary ruling of the European Court of First Instance to give Ryanair right. The Court annulled the Commission's decision as " an error of law " on (Case T-196/04 ). Ryanair then called on the Commission to discontinue its investigation into the charges at other airports (eg Frankfurt -Hahn, Lübeck and Berlin- Schönefeld ).
A newly built terminal building was opened in January 2008. The new airport terminal is 30,000 square meters and has a capacity of up to 5 million passengers per year. The expansion was necessary because the old building was not prepared for the increasing number of passengers. Together with the old terminal to the airport's capacity increased to theoretical 7.5 million visitors per year.
Since 27 January 2009, the airport is officially a Airport ILS category 3, that is, it is equipped with an instrument landing system, which allows, even in adverse weather conditions and landing.
Airlines and destinations
The largest user of the airport is the Irish budget airline Ryanair. Charleroi was the first continental European aviation hub for Ryanair. Other major airlines at Charleroi Airport, the Hungarian Wizz Air and originating from the Association of TUI Airlines company Jetairfly. Private Wings flies to Charleroi on charter flights from Ingolstadt. A first regular scheduled service in the German-speaking Ryanair offered since spring 2012 to Memmingen, which was, however, reinstated the winter timetable 2012/2013. The large number of destinations in Morocco is probably due to the high proportion of immigrants within Moroccans in Brussels and Charleroi in itself. From Charleroi also targets in Tunisia and Algeria are served.
Transport links
- Car: From Brussels approximately 40 min / From Charleroi from 10 minutes
- Shuttle: hourly to Brussels (South Station ), several times a day to Bruges and Lille