High-speed trains must stop again at Brussels Airport as soon as possible. ‘The rails are already in place. It’s just a matter of ambition’, says Arnaud Feist, CEO of Brussels Airport. After the heavy blows of the corona crisis, the airport boss is aiming for a return to profit in 2022.
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A year and a half ago, Feist was standing in the offices of Brussels Airport to speak. Behind him lay a desolately empty tarmac and there was hardly any activity. That snapshot illustrated how disastrous the corona year 2020 would be financially. Brussels Airport received 6.7 million passengers that year – compared to 26.4 million in the record year 2019 – and the year ended in the red for 147 million euros. The year before, there was still 76 million profit at the bottom of the income statement.
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The essence
- Arnaud Feist, the CEO of Brussels Airport, advocates an HST connection at the airport.
- According to him, Brussels Airport is in danger of being hit by the competition in this area, including Schiphol.
- The airport should clock in at 9.5 million passengers this year, significantly more than in 2020 (6.7 million) but far below the record set in 2019 (26.4 million).
- Nevertheless, Brussels Airport will still suffer a substantial loss this year. Feist hopes for a return to profit in 2022.
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Feist is now speaking to us from the same chair as he was a year and a half ago. In the background is still the same tarmac, but this time with more activity. One corona year is not the other. “We will end 2021 with about 9.5 million passengers, about 50 percent more than in 2020,” he says. Cargo is growing by a third compared to 2020. ‘The recovery is there, but it is progressing very slowly.’ Since the beginning of September, all employees of the company have returned to work and are even being recruited for the time being. “The system of temporary unemployment was a blessing,” says the airport boss.
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Holidays
The positive trend since the summer seems to continue for the rest of the year and early 2022. ‘The Belgians want to go on holiday. The Christmas holidays are looking good. And we hear that reservations are already coming in for Easter and next year’s summer holidays,” Feist said (the talk took place before Wednesday’s Consultation Committee).
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He does not want to give many details about how this will translate financially. The turnover of 2021? It should grow at about the same rate as the number of passengers. He is not yet counting on a profit. That will be ‘hopefully’ before 2022, if the pandemic does not spread. ‘This year the loss will still amount to tens of millions of euros.’
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There is no room for a dividend. That is a line through the account of the new shareholders for the second time who came on board at the end of 2019. ‘But our shareholders are thinking long-term. They are aware of the efforts we are making to overcome this crisis,” says Feist.
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TGV’s
In order to attract even more passengers to Brussels, to offer them more services and to be even more sustainable, the CEO of Brussels Airport fervently advocates connecting the airport to the HST or high-speed network. ‘Passengers who get off the plane should immediately be able to take a train that will take them to Paris, Amsterdam or Cologne. Switching in Brussels-South is not practical.’
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The Belgians want to go on holiday. The Christmas holidays are looking good in that regard. And we hear that reservations are already coming in for Easter and next year’s summer vacation.
Arnaud Feist
CEO Brussels Airport
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According to Feist, the financial picture is not so much the problem in the HST file. ‘The rails are already in place. We have a train station below the airport. But it’s a matter of ambition.’ According to him, the plans must be accelerated, because the competition is not standing still. ‘Schiphol will offer HST connections to six European cities, including Brussels, in the medium term. Brussels South, that is.’
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Has there already been consultation with the NMBS about the file? Yes, confirm Feist and Sophie Dutordoir, are equals on the Belgian railways. “The NMBS is in regular and constructive contact with the top of Brussels Airport to ensure that the airport is served as optimally as possible,” says the top woman of the NMBS. Dutordoir does not want to go into further detail.
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Today, more than 80 Belgian cities are connected to the airport and more than 360 trains run daily, twelve per hour, to and from the airport.
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