Brussels Airport ZYR

I have no idea what "ZYR" is. Does your ticket say something about "Zaventem"? If so, that's the main Brussels airport, and it has easy and frequent connections to Gent.

Now, if it's Brussels-Charleroi... like most airports serviced by Ryanair, it has no rail access, and is located nowhere near the city for which it's named (well, it is close to Charleroi, which is about as attractive a tourist destination as Detroit). As far as I know, Charleroi only has bus access, so you would need to either get to Brussels and catch the train from there, or navigate between the different bus companies that operate in Wallonia and Flanders to reach Gent.

Tom,
The ticket specifically says our flight in is to ZYR and our flight out is from BRU.

This is what I have so far:
Brussels Midi (ZYR) Airport is international airport 11 KM Nearest Brussels, Belgium. Brussels Midi (ZYR) Airport is also awarded as a best airport in 2005 by ACI/IATA. Brussels Midi (ZYR) Airport is also known as "The Brussels Airport Company".

Full Airport Name

Brussels Midi

ZYR Airport Address

Rue de France, 1060 Brussels, Belgium

ZYR Airport Code

ZYR

I just received this in a private message:
Rail: Metro: The base is anon affiliated to the Metro, which branches out beyond the centre and suburbs of Brussels with common services. Brussels-Midi base is additionally affiliated to the Belgian and all-embracing railway network, including Eurostar (tel: 08705 186 186 or +44 1233 617 575 (from alfresco the UK); website: www.eurostar.com). From 0530 till about midnight, the Airport Burghal Express (tel: (02) 528 2828) links Brussels Midi base with Brussels Airport four times an hour.

Jo, ZYR is shown at Brussels Midi Railway Station. Odd that planes fly into a railway station but I assume that there is runway somewhere nearby. This facility is reportedly 11km from Brussels. The information says that only three airlines fly into and out of ZYR - Thalys International, Air Austral and Gulf Air. Most departing and arriving flights take place within Belgium. BRU is 8 miles from ZYR. Here's a link to a picture of what I see. I zoomed in where the airplane is pictured and it's a neighborhood. No runway, airport or train station so I'm a bit confused as well. http://gyazo.com/6bedb0dad051e61eff0dd19a218d4b05

London St Pancras also has an airport code. What I suspect is going on is that the final leg of your flight into Belgium is actually a Eurostar train from London or a Thalys train from Paris or Amsterdam. Are you making a transatlantic flight into any of those cities and then changing?

International trains are sometimes included in air booking databases, and this leads to stations showing up as "airports" on itineraries if the booking system used isn't flexible enough to recognise rail.

Our tickets show that we are on Gulfstream Airlines as an Air France code share from Paris. As long as I get there, I don't care how but this is confusing!

ZYR is the IATA code for Brussels-South, Bruxelles-Midi in French or Brussel-Zuid in Dutch. It’s not an airport, but a railway-station in Brussels and is also the main hub for highspeed trains in this city. Brussels is a bilingual city, so the names are in French and Dutch, but people can speak English as well.

Nowadays more intercontinental flights are serviced from the main hubs in Europe like London Heathrow, Frankfurt Airport and Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG) near Paris. If you book a ticket from an airline based in one of these airports but you live abroad sometimes an additional flight is included to get there. Or in your case if you land there it’s possible that an additional flight is included in your ticket to travel further to your more remote destination.

Your latest post shows that your ticket makes use of the Air France code and it’s very likely that your intercontinental flight will end at CDG airport near Paris. But as Brussels is located some 300km from CDG, the best, quickest and most convenient way to go to there is directly from the airport by highspeed train. Air France makes in this case use of this for it’s costumers in Belgium. So the final leg will be a ride with the train to Brussels and will take about an hour and a half. As this is included in the ticket, officially your “flight” will end with a trainride at the Brussels-South railwaystation in Brussels, having the IATA code ZYR. For the airline company it doesn’t matter if this is an airport or a railwaystation, it’s just for administrative reasons. If you are not familiar with this it’s indeed confusing.

Luckely railwaystation Brussels-South is the best place in Brussels for a direct frequent train to Ghent, and will take some thirty minutes. You only have to change platforms there and you can make use of elevators and escalators. Tickets for Ghent must be bought at the counter in the main hall underneath the tracks. The main railwaystation in Ghent has the more used name St. Pieters, but is undergoing extensive reconstruction at the moment, so some inconvenience can possibly be expected. From there you can take the tram, or a taxi if you think it will make more sense regarding your physical capabilities.

Flying back to the U.S. will be from Brussels (International) Airport, the IATA code is BRU, for the locals better known as Zaventem and is located some 15km north-east of Brussels. There are frequent trains from one of the main railwaystations in Brussels to the station in the basement of the airport terminal.

Some 60km south of Brussels there is a considerably smaller airport named Brussels South Charleroi Airport with IATA code CRL, but is only for budget airlines inside Europe. Some people call it Brussels South Airport, but this airport has obviously nothing to do with the above mentioned railway-station, but can be confusing if one is not familiar with the names of both places. According the information you give this airport will be irrelevant.

So this is to my opinion the case, but to avoid any mistake check this information first thoroughly to be sure if I’m correct! Hopefully this explanation makes everything more clear now.