Flights to Belgium
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Map of Airports in Belgium |
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A list of all our featured airports in Belgium can be found below, together with an overview of how to find cheap flights to Belgium.
Featured Cities in Belgium:
Antwerp Brussels Any
Flights to Belgium - Overview
Belgium might be one of the closest countries to the UK, but it does not offer anything like the same level of cheap flights that is available to other nearby countries such as France and the Netherlands. The most important airport in Belgium is Brussels National, which is also known as Zaventem.
Brussels National airport is home to Brussels Airlines, who have gone through various reincarnations over the years, having recently merged with Virgin Express. Brussels Airlines were formerly known as Sabena, and then SN Brussels Airlines. Flights to Brussels National are available from many major UK cities, although flights from regional airports like Leeds Bradford and Edinburgh are operated by BMI Regional, rather than Brussels Airlines.
Belgium’s second busiest airport is Charleroi, also known as Brussels South, which has been subject to a great deal of controversy over the alleged subsidies it has received from the local government. Charleroi is an important base for the budget airline Ryanair, who have now restarted their London to Brussels Charleroi flights, having previously suspended them as part of an ongoing row with the EU. Meanwhile, Ryanair continue to offer cheap flights to Brussels Charleroi from both Glasgow and Dublin - in fact, Ryanair's Glasgow to Brussels flights have lasted considerably longer than the short lived route from Glasgow International to Brussels National, which was operated by SN Brussels for just one season.
Belgium has several other airports outside Brussels, including Europe’s diamond trading capital, Antwerp. Regular commuter shuttle flights to Antwerp are operated by VLM from both London City airport and Manchester. Antwerp airport, which is just 35 miles from Brussels, has recently rebranded itself is Brussels North airport.
Ryanair have previously operated flights to Ostend/Bruges airport, although this route has not operated for several years. Belgium also plays host to a major freight hub in Liege, although there are no passenger flights to Liege from the UK.
Following the merger of Virgin Express with SN Brussels Airlines, which Ryanair bosses once referred to as "like two drunks propping each other up in a muddy field", there is very little true budget airline presence at Brussels National airport. However, Easyjet have recently started operating cheap flights to Brussels from their base in Geneva, prompting speculation that they will open up more routes into Brussels in the not too distant future.
Whilst flights to Belgium continue to be popular with business and city break passengers alike, more and more people are choosing to travel from London and southeast England to Belgium by Eurostar. The appeal of Eurostar is certainly set to increase further in November, when the new St Pancras international station opens, cutting journey times between London and Brussels down to just 1 hour 50 minutes. The location of St Pancras in north London will make Eurostar a viable consideration as an alternative to flights to Brussels from numerous other airports, including Birmingham, East Midlands, and even Manchester or Leeds. Eurostar already offers its passengers the advantage of city centre to city centre travel, a greener conscience, and free onward rail travel to any other destination within Belgium.
Much as though the upgraded Eurostar will dramatically improve access to Belgium from many parts of the UK, there are still several areas without any decent links with Brussels. BMI Regional have recently started flights from Aberdeen to Brussels, although this is hardly surprising considering that they are based in Aberdeen.
Following the demise of Air Wales, the lack of direct flights from Cardiff to Brussels might continue to cause disappointment to local political bigwigs (including EU Commissioner Neil Kinnock), but the route simply do not appear to be commercially viable. Likewise, attempts to offer flights from Belfast to Brussels on eight-seater executive aircraft were never likely to be successful, but airlines like Easyjet and Flybe have so far appeared to be uninterested in offering direct flights to Belgium from Northern Ireland.
If you cannot find decently priced flights to Brussels from your local airport, then we would suggest looking at flights to either Amsterdam or Paris (Charles de Gaulle) instead. There are regular high-speed Thalys trains to several cities within Belgium from both of these airports. Alternatively, if you are travelling from mid-November onwards, then it might be worth taking a domestic flight to Luton, and then transferring to Eurostar at St Pancras.
We hope that you have found this information about flights to Belgium useful.
Mini guide to Belgium
Belgium may have been the butt of many a Frenchman’s joke and have a reputation for being a tad dull, but you only need to scratch beneath the surface to discover that the Belgians are the ones having the last laugh. Belgium is modest but self-confident – as any country would be if it could lay claim to having the most delicious chocolate, the widest range of beer and the crunchiest chips in the world.
What more do you need? Well, if all those base pleasures are not enough, then what about exploring cosmopolitan Brussels or Bruges, one of the best preserved medieval cities in Europe.
The trading port and diamond centre of Antwerp has been luring visitors for centuries, but the former home of Rubens and Van Dyck is set to take off as a short-break destination now it has become a major player both on the fashion and design scenes. A sobering reminder of Belgium’s pivotal role in European history can be found in the poppy strewn battlefields of Flanders, where over 300,000 Allied soldiers were killed during the First World War.
The most dramatic scenery in Belgium can be found in the Ardennes, a region in the south-east of the country blessed with spectacular gorges and thick forests.
More details:
Belgium Flight News
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