Can Brussels Airport make its first high-speed train in a decade pay off?

Deutsche Bahn’s first scheduled ICE from Cologne reached Brussels Airport at 08:29 on Monday 7 September, restoring a direct high-speed rail service to Belgium’s main airport for the first time since 2015. The train had left Cologne at 06:11 and stopped in Aachen, Liège and Leuven before spending about five minutes beneath the airport terminal and continuing to Antwerpen-Centraal. Deutsche Bahn is operating two trains a day in each direction on the new Cologne–Antwerp route, giving the airport four daily ICE calls.

The arrival matters less as a ceremonial first than as a test of whether rail and aviation can function as one commercial journey. Brussels Airlines and Deutsche Bahn have introduced a codeshare covering connections from Cologne, Aachen and Liège: eligible passengers can buy the train and flight in one booking, receive a reserved train seat and, under the operators’ stated conditions, retain connection protection if disruption causes them to miss the next leg. Deutsche Bahn also places the rail services in airline reservation systems, potentially allowing other carriers to use them as feeders.

That removes some of the friction faced by households and business travellers who would otherwise compare separate tickets, separate conditions and the risk of paying for a replacement flight after a delayed train. The scheduled Cologne–airport journey takes about two hours. For passengers in western Germany, it creates an alternative to driving to Zaventem or flying from a German hub; for travellers in Liège and Leuven, it adds a limited but direct high-speed option to the airport and Antwerp. Prices will still decide how useful it is in practice, and neither the launch announcement nor the initial reporting establishes how many seats have been sold.

The commercial logic is clearest for Brussels Airlines, part of Lufthansa Group, and Brussels Airport Company. The airline can widen the ground catchment area feeding its long-haul network without adding a short connecting flight, while the airport gains easier access to customers in and around Cologne and Aachen. Deutsche Bahn specifically presented the service as a link to Brussels Airlines’ African network, reflecting the carrier’s established position on routes to sub-Saharan Africa. Brussels Airport says its wider network currently exceeds 180 destinations, although that figure describes possible onward flights rather than guaranteed connections from each ICE arrival.

There is also a broader market signal. The Brussels Times reported, citing Deutsche Bahn, that more than 25 million passengers used the operator’s international services in 2025, nearly one-third more than in 2019. Traffic on the Cologne–Brussels corridor rose 16% from 2024. The new airport service therefore enters a growing cross-border rail market rather than trying to create one from nothing. It also extends to Antwerp, giving business and leisure passengers a direct German connection that avoids a transfer in Brussels.

Yet frequency is modest. Two daily return trains cannot offer the flexibility of the airport’s domestic rail network, where six direct trains an hour connect Brussels Airport with the capital. Flight schedules are spread across the day, and an ICE delay can still create operational complications even where the passenger is contractually protected. Deutsche Bahn has faced persistent reliability concerns on its home network; the value of the codeshare will ultimately depend on how smoothly operators rebook travellers and handle baggage and missed connections, not merely on whether both legs appear on one itinerary.

The airport also remains subject to the Brussels Airport rail supplement. Brussels Airport’s passenger information lists the charge at €6.90 for journeys beginning or ending at the station, although travellers buying an integrated international or air-rail fare should check whether it is already included. For a Belgian household, the new ICE is consequently most relevant when its timetable and through-fare beat an ordinary SNCB connection through Brussels or Liège—not simply because the train is faster in technical terms.

The historical comparison offers a warning. A direct Thalys between Paris and Brussels Airport disappeared in December 2015 after several years of weak demand. BRUZZ reported at the time that the service carried about 40,000 passengers in 2013, or roughly 55 per train, and had already been reduced to summer operation before being withdrawn as unprofitable. The new service differs because it links Cologne with Antwerp, serves intermediate Belgian cities and is embedded in a Lufthansa-style rail-and-air product. Even so, the earlier failure shows that laying tracks beneath an airport does not by itself produce a viable high-speed market.

Public policy is moving in the same direction as the operators. The European Commission’s Belgian representation said in 2024 that an EU-backed study project would examine an intermodal passenger hub at Brussels Airport, including rail, public transport and cycling. That supports the long-term objective of making the airport a transport interchange rather than solely an aviation terminal. It does not, however, demonstrate that this particular ICE service will reduce emissions: the outcome depends on whether passengers switch from cars or feeder flights, rather than from existing trains.

Attention will now turn from the inaugural arrival to occupancy, punctuality and connection performance. Deutsche Bahn and Brussels Airlines have not published a passenger target, break-even threshold or commitment to increase frequency. The decisive evidence will be whether travellers keep buying the combined product after the launch period—and whether two daily train pairs become the foundation of a larger air-rail network or remain a carefully timed niche service.