Passenger numbers
In spite of a challenging market environment, in 2017 Brussels Airlines continued on its growth path of recent years and posted a positive result for the third consecutive year. Brussels Airlines' seating capacity increased by 11% compared to 2016, particularly in the European route network, following the expiry of the AVRO RJ100 fleet (100 seats) and partial replacement by the larger Airbus A319 / 320 (140/180 seats). The increased capacity in the long haul area was realized through the use of an Airbus A330, which was mainly used on the new Mumbai route. The additional seats have resulted in passenger growth of 17.3%, allowing Brussels Airlines to exceed the 9 million passenger mark for the first time in its history (one million more than originally planned) and a seat load factor of 78.8% ( + 4.1 pp and only 1.8 pp below the ambitious target of 2018), also a record for Brussels Airlines.