With the imminent arrival of aircraft from Jet Airways, India's largest private airline, from Mumbai on August 5, low-key Brussels airport is hoping that the Indian carrier's daily Mumbai-Brussels-Newark service will bolster not only passenger but also cargo traffic with both India and the United States.

Brussels airport benefits from the huge presence of the Indian business community in and around Antwerp, the majority of who are engaged in the diamond trade. Antwerp is an important diamond hub where billions of dollars in precious stones change hands in trade with India, Israel, South Africa and the United States. A large chunk of this diamond business passes through Brussels airport.

Brussels airport, which likes to portray itself as a "hub in the heart of Europe", is keen to come out of the shadow of its next door "big brother", Amsterdam's Sch-iphol airport, which has long dominated the Benelux region and has come close to challenging Frankfurt airport, Europe's leading cargo airport.

According to Philippe Fierens, Brussels airport's cargo business development manager, Jet Airways selected Brussels because of the latter's "good quality service, capacity, and the good connections offered by Brussels Airlines to other European cities and African countries".

"We are also trying to get Jet Airways' freighters to fly to Brussels en route to the US, which is India's biggest market," Fierens told Cargonews Asia.

"Brussels airport can offer Jet Airways and other potential carriers reliability, low landing and take-off fees and adequate space. Fees at Brussels airport are only one-third of fees charged at Schiphol," said Fierens. Jet Airways also has a co-operation deal with Lufthansa Cargo, the leading European carrier.

Brussels airport is upbeat about Jet Airways' ambitious plans to foray into North America from India via Brussels. The carrier will start a second service - Mumbai-Brussels-Toronto - from September 1. In 2008, Jet Airways plans to introduce three more routes from Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai via Brussels to Chicago, JFK New York and Los Angeles.

In an attempt to lure foreign cargo carriers, Brussels airport has been dangling carrots such as offering 50 percent discount on landing and take-off fees for new airlines, marketing support and a host of other indirect incentives.

Cargo carriers operating from Brussels, however, lament at the restrictions that exist at the airport such as the ban on night flights. This is one of the reasons which prompted DHL to move the bulk of its operations from Brussels airport to Leipzig-Halle airport in Eastern Germany, where the express carrier has built a major distribution hub.

"Brussels does have a ban on night flights (from 11:00 pm to 6:00 am)," admits Fierens, "but this is for new airlines only. The old carriers, which have been operating from here, are not affected and new airlines can always put themselves on a waiting list and when an old carrier decides to withdraw, the new one take its place.''

Brussels airport, cognizant of its limitations, sees itself as a "second-tier airport", playing a somewhat subordinate role to Europe's major cargo airports such as Frankfurt, Schiphol, Heathrow and Charles de Gaulle.

"Our competitors are, mainly, second-tier airports in Germany such as Cologne/Bonn, Munich and Hahn," said Fierens.

Germany's low-cost Hahn airport, in which the financially strong Fraport has acquired a major stake, has an edge over Brussels airport in terms of costs but, Fierens said, "Brussels has a far more advantageous location, a radius of 750 km and an extensive feeder network."

With 720,000 tonnes of air freight and an additional 295,000 tonnes of road freight passing through Brussels airport in 2006, the airport authority is keen to strengthen its ties with Asia to boost cargo traffic.

Singapore Cargo is the airport's major customer. The carrier maintains 14 flights a week using a B747-400 aircraft from Singapore via Brussels to JFK New York.

Though it has been able to attract an Indian carrier, Brussels realizes that Asia is not complete without the other giant - China.

"We are very much interested to have flights from China to Brussels. We are initiating contacts with the appropriate Chinese partners," Fierens said.