Brussels Airlines will add two Arctic destinations this winter, Kemi-Tornio in Finnish Lapland and Evenes in northern Norway, as Brussels Airport prepares a winter 2026–27 network of 136 direct destinations. The airport outlined the programme on 15 October, ahead of the start of the winter season on 25 October.
Kemi-Tornio and Evenes are two of four new destinations from Brussels this winter, alongside Santiago de Compostela and Nantes. The airport's intercontinental network will include 40 non-stop destinations.
Lapland and northern Norway from Brussels
Brussels Airlines will fly to Kemi-Tornio twice a week from 25 December, timing the launch for the Christmas and New Year peak in Lapland. Evenes, the airport serving the Harstad and Narvik region of northern Norway, follows with a weekly service from 6 February 2027.
The two routes are not the only Arctic flying from Brussels this season. Brussels Airport says Brussels Airlines and Finnair will also serve Kittilä, another Lapland airport, this winter. Together, the services give Belgian travellers several direct options for snow holidays and northern lights trips without connecting through Helsinki or Oslo.
Santiago de Compostela, Nantes and more Transavia flights
The other two new destinations come from different carriers. New airline Fly2Galicia will connect Brussels with Santiago de Compostela twice a week from 1 December, and easyJet will launch twice-weekly flights to Nantes on 26 October.
Several airlines are also expanding existing links. Transavia will add three weekly flights to Las Palmas from 28 October, two weekly flights to Reykjavik from 30 October and three weekly flights to Porto from 14 December. On the long-haul side, Etihad will increase its Abu Dhabi service from seven to 11 weekly flights from 15 December.
A busy start to the season
Before the winter timetable takes over, the airport is handling the autumn school holidays. It expects more than 1.7 million passengers over the holiday period, with Friday 16 October forecast as the busiest day at about 82,000 passengers. Brussels Airport noted that French- and Dutch-speaking schools in Belgium have different holiday dates this year, which makes direct comparisons with 2025 difficult.
The airport advises passengers to arrive two hours before Schengen departures and three hours before non-Schengen flights.
What the winter network shows
The Brussels list reflects two trends seen across many European airports this winter. The first is the continued growth of sun routes to the Canary Islands and southern Europe, here led by Transavia's new Las Palmas and Porto flights. The second is the steady rise of Arctic winter tourism, which has pushed airlines to add seasonal flights into small northern airports such as Kemi-Tornio, Kittilä and Evenes, often only for a few weeks around Christmas and in late winter.
For Brussels Airlines, which is part of the Lufthansa Group, the Lapland and northern Norway routes are small seasonal additions aimed at leisure demand from its Belgian home market. Twice-weekly and weekly frequencies are typical for such leisure routes, which are built around holiday weeks rather than daily business demand.
The airport did not publish passenger forecasts for the full winter season or say how the 136-destination total compares with last winter. Airlines may still adjust frequencies before the season starts, and some of the new services, including the Evenes route, do not begin until well into the winter schedule.
The winter season at Brussels Airport begins on 25 October 2026, the same weekend that airlines across Europe switch to their winter timetables.
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