Analysis and improvement of "the Last Mile" to and from the national airport as part of the mobility policy in the Brussels urban area

Abstract

Aviation is the fastest growing transport mode worldwide. One of the drawbacks of this success is the increasing number of passengers that need to be transported to and from the airport before and after their flights. The last mile is the distance between the starting point of the trip and the airport of departure or between the airport of arrival and the destination of the trip. In some airports, the further development of activities can be constrained by the landside part of the transport chain. In this paper, the current situation of the passenger transport to and from Brussels Airport is analyzed. The airport is located next to the ring road of Brussels and consequently passengers travelling by road to the airport influence traffic on the ring road and inversely congestion on this same ring road interferes with smooth passenger traffic to the airport. The capacity of public transport should therefore be increased and its catchment area should be extended to reduce the share of personal vehicles in the total passenger transport. The different landside access modes to the airport are inventoried and their shares in the total are described. Planned mobility projects and their environmental impacts are evaluated in the light of expected development of the airport. Moreover, the implementation potential of some examples from other airports to Brussels Airport as well as their sustainability is assessed.