Brussels Airport to upgrade airbridges

Brussels Airport in Belgium is to spend more than €52 million ($61 million) to re-equip one of its piers with modern airbridges in a substantial investment program aimed at improving customer services.

The airport, at Zaventem, will replace the 24 airbridges on Pier B. The existing bridges are 25 years old and will be progressively replaced to cope with the increasingly large aircraft operating into the Belgian capital’s airport.

The new airbridges will be equipped with air conditioning and large windows.

“This major investment in new state-of-the-art boarding bridges perfectly fits in with Brussels Airport’s strategy of offering greater comfort to our customers, passengers and airlines, and increasing operational efficiency,” airport CEO Arnaud Feist said.

Sixteen of the new airbridges will be dual boarding bridges, which will speed up the boarding and deplaning process. A triple boarding bridge will be installed at Pier B’s gates 31 and 33, which will allow the airport to meet future demands from airlines to operate Airbus A380s.

Work on the installation of this triple boarding bridge will begin immediately, launching the first phase of a larger renovation program.

The replacement of the airport’s 22 other airbridges will commence at the end of 2018, with the work being completed in phases to maintain the airport’s full operational capacity. The project will be completed around 2022.

The airport announced passenger figures for September had risen to 2.4 million, up 6.1% on the same period last year.