TUI fly will end all of its flights from Antwerp Airport in the spring of 2027, bringing to a close 12 years of service at the Belgian regional airport. The tour operator confirmed it will concentrate its Belgian flying at Brussels and Ostend, the two airports where it can operate larger aircraft.
According to the schedule, the final departures from Antwerp are due to take place at the end of March 2027, with the last flight to Alicante on 24 March and the last service to Malaga on 25 March. Once TUI leaves, Antwerp Airport will be left without a major commercial airline operator.
The airline pointed to aircraft size as the central reason for the decision. At Antwerp, whose relatively short runway constrains operations, TUI can only deploy smaller Embraer regional jets seating around 112 passengers. From Brussels and Ostend, by contrast, it can use larger Boeing narrowbodies seating roughly 149 passengers, giving it more capacity and better economics on the same leisure routes.
The withdrawal is the latest blow for Antwerp, a small airport close to the city centre that has struggled to retain scheduled leisure services in recent years. TUI had been the last remaining major holiday carrier there, and its departure concentrates Belgium's outbound leisure flying even more heavily on Brussels.
For passengers in the Antwerp catchment area, the change means holiday flights will shift primarily to Brussels Airport, about 45 kilometres away, or to Ostend on the coast. TUI has framed the move as a consolidation of its Belgian network rather than a reduction in overall capacity, arguing that larger aircraft from fewer bases allow it to carry more travellers more efficiently.
Antwerp Airport will continue to handle business aviation, general aviation and other operations after TUI's exit, but the loss of its anchor leisure carrier raises fresh questions about the long-term commercial role of Belgium's smaller airports. Regional airports across Europe have increasingly found it difficult to compete when airlines standardise on larger, more cost-efficient aircraft that require longer runways and busier catchment areas to fill.
TUI's decision does not affect its 2026 summer programme from Antwerp, which is scheduled to run as planned before the routes are wound down the following spring.
Sources: aviation24, VRT News. Featured image: AI-generated by AviationShop. By Marco Bianchi.
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