Do Brussels Airport’s new Brazil and Tanzania links change the business case for Zaventem?

Brussels Airport has added two long-haul links in the same week: LATAM’s Brussels-Sao Paulo service, operating three times a week, and Brussels Airlines’ new direct link to Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. For passengers, the headline is simpler travel: Brussels is again directly connected with South America after about 25 years, while Tanzania becomes easier to reach without changing aircraft through another European or Gulf hub. For businesses, the point is more specific. The Sao Paulo route matters because LATAM has used Brussels Airport for cargo since 2023 and has built a European cargo base there. That makes the passenger service more than a tourism route: it sits on top of freight flows, business travel, visiting-friends-and-relatives traffic, and Belgium’s role as a logistics gateway. The Tanzania link is different. It strengthens Brussels Airlines’ long-standing Africa positioning and gives Belgian tour operators, NGOs, development actors and diaspora travellers a more direct option into East Africa. The market test will be load factors, fares and cargo use, not launch-day ceremony. Brussels Airport handled 24.4 million passengers and 795,000 tonnes of cargo in 2025, still below its 2019 passenger peak of 26.4 million but with stronger cargo volumes than before the pandemic. In that context, new intercontinental routes are not decorative: they are one way a mid-sized European airport tries to defend relevance between larger hubs such as Amsterdam Schiphol, Paris Charles de Gaulle and Frankfurt.