Belgium by plane · Belgium by plane
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Belgium by plane
Belgium by plane
Brussels Airport (also known as Zaventem due to the town in which it is mainly located) is Belgium's main airport (IATA code BRU). It is not located in Brussels proper, but in surrounding Flanders. The airport is the base of the national airline Brussels Airlines . Other full-service airlines use BRU, as well as budget carriers such as Vueling , JetairFly and Thomas Cook .
There is a train (€ 5.10) running every 15 minutes to Brussels centre taking 25 minutes, some of them continuing to Ghent, Mons, Nivelles, and West Flanders and bus lines number 12 and 21 (€ 3 at the vending machine/€ 5 on board) every 20 to 30 minutes to Place Luxembourg (European Parliament district). The bus stops at NATO and Schuman (for the EU institutions) on its way to the centre. There are also two trains per hour to Leuven, taking 13 minutes.
A taxi to the centre of Brussels costs around € 35 - cheaper if booked in advance. Taxis bleus: +32 (0)2 268 0000, Taxis Autolux: +32 (0)2 411 4142, Taxis verts: +32 (0)2 349 4949.
Brussels South Charleroi Airport (IATA code CRL), about 50km south of Brussels, mostly serves low-cost carriers, such as Ryanair and Wizzair . You can get to Brussels Gare du Midi on a coach in about an hour (€13 one way, €22 return). If you're going to any other part of Belgium, buy a combination bus+train ticket via Charleroi Sud train station from the TEC vending machines outside the airport for at most €19.40 one-way.
However, if you are really stuck, it is not unusual for taxi drivers to take credit cards. The price of a taxi ride to Brussels is a set fare (approximately €95 as of May 2006) and you can check with the taxi driver if he will accept your credit card(s) or not.
Antwerp Airport (IATA code ANR) has some business flights, including CityJet 's reasonably priced link to London City airport. Other airports include Oostende, Liège and Kortrijk, but they only handle freight and charter flights.
Flights to airports in neighbouring countries might be worth considering, especially to Amsterdam Schiphol Airport which has a direct rail link to Brussels, also making stops at Antwerp and Mechelen.
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Belgium Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.