IN Brief:
- Brussels Airport and Hyderabad International Airport have signed an air cargo cooperation memorandum.
- The partners will examine stronger pharmaceutical and life sciences connectivity despite having no direct service today.
- Brussels offers 45,000 sq m of temperature-controlled airport storage alongside established CEIV Pharma expertise.
Brussels Airport and Hyderabad International Airport have signed a memorandum of understanding to strengthen air cargo cooperation between Belgium and India, with pharmaceutical and life sciences logistics at the centre of the agreement.
The airports plan to share knowledge, examine opportunities to improve cargo connectivity, and build closer links between their respective pharmaceutical communities. There is currently no direct air connection between Brussels and Hyderabad, so the agreement establishes a development framework rather than announcing new scheduled capacity.
That leaves the commercial case to be built around cargo demand, operating requirements, and airline interest. The two airports say they will work on concrete initiatives over the coming months, including efforts to strengthen cargo traffic and connect companies across the Belgian and Indian life sciences sectors.
Brussels brings an established pharmaceutical logistics platform to the partnership. It became the first airport globally to achieve IATA CEIV Pharma certification in 2014 and now offers 45,000 sq m of temperature-controlled storage, giving it a substantial base for handling medicines and other sensitive healthcare products.
Belgium is the world’s fourth-largest exporter of pharmaceutical products, while Hyderabad is a major centre for pharmaceutical manufacturing, vaccines, research, and development. India is also the world’s largest supplier of generic medicines by volume, accounting for about 20% of global supply, according to the Brussels Airport announcement.
The agreement therefore links two locations that sit at different points in the pharmaceutical value chain. Hyderabad provides access to a dense manufacturing and research cluster, while Brussels offers a European cargo gateway with specialist storage, established handling standards, and onward connectivity into a large regional market.
Brussels Airport handled 795,000 tonnes of cargo in 2025 and offers direct connections to 205 destinations with 83 airlines during 2026. Those figures do not guarantee a Hyderabad service, but they show the scale of the network into which additional Indian pharmaceutical traffic could feed if the partnership develops into regular capacity.
For Hyderabad, the immediate task is to demonstrate a sufficiently consistent flow of suitable cargo. Airlines evaluating a route need more than isolated charter movements or occasional high-value consignments; they need evidence that traffic can support a service frequency and aircraft economics that remain viable beyond an initial launch period.
Pharmaceutical freight also places tighter requirements on route design than general cargo. Transit time, transfer points, storage conditions, handling procedures, and contingency arrangements can affect whether a routing is commercially useful even when the airport pair looks attractive on a map.
That makes knowledge exchange a practical part of the agreement rather than a diplomatic extra. Brussels has spent more than a decade developing a CEIV Pharma ecosystem around airlines, forwarders, handlers, and temperature-controlled infrastructure. Hyderabad operates within one of India’s most significant life sciences clusters and can contribute demand knowledge from the manufacturing side of the chain.
The partners can use that information to identify commodity flows, seasonal patterns, handling requirements, and destinations before asking carriers to commit aircraft capacity. A better picture of the cargo base also allows forwarders and pharmaceutical manufacturers to assess whether a future service could replace indirect routings or simply add another option to existing networks.
Direct connectivity would reduce one transfer between the two airports, but the value of a new route would still depend on schedule, frequency, capacity, and onward distribution. A weekly service with poor onward connections may be less useful than an indirect route operating every day, particularly where pharmaceutical supply chains depend on predictable lead times.
The MoU was signed with support from Flanders Investment & Trade, adding a trade-development element to the airport partnership. Bringing regional investment and trade bodies into the discussion can help connect the logistics work with manufacturers and exporters that ultimately determine whether sufficient cargo demand exists.
No direct Brussels-Hyderabad service has been announced, and the next stage is likely to be less visible than an inaugural flight. The useful work will sit in traffic analysis, shipper engagement, handling alignment, and airline discussions that determine whether the two pharma clusters can support a more direct freight corridor.
If that work produces regular capacity, the agreement would give Hyderabad another European gateway for temperature-sensitive exports and Brussels a stronger connection into one of India’s principal life sciences centres. Until then, the MoU is best measured by the concrete cargo initiatives the airports have committed to develop over the coming months.
