Cargo volumes at Brussels Airport have grown for the first time since the hub serving the Belgian capital was hit by terrorist attacks in March.

Volumes in August were up 6.6 per cent year-on-year to 39,848 driven by the full-freighter segment, which benefitted from the development of Ethiopian Airlines Cargo.

Freighter cargo grew by 13.3 per cent to 29,511 tonnes with full-freighters up 26.2 per cent to 14,053 tonnes and express rising 3.8 per cent to 15,459 tonnes due to worldwide growth of e-commerce.

Bellyhold cargo was down 8.9 per cent to 10,336 tonnes mainly due to the departure of Jet Airways.

Year-to-date volumes were down 4.9 per cent to 310,044 with total freighter traffic declining 0.3 per cent to 229,059 tonnes and bellyhold by 15.6 per cent to 80,985 tonnes.

Full freighter cargo was down 2.1 per cent to 96,293 tonnes while express was up 0.9 per cent to 132,766 tonnes.