virginblue - You are correct. Having checked, today's advertised timings are much faster than they used to be. Trainline Europe is now quoting 1H 55 average journey time Zaventem-Brugge with one change. Gent is 1H 11. You need to get into Brussels from the airport first. Fast trains then link Brussels to the coast via Gent and Brugge. But of course, it is these very same trains which offer quick connections from Oostende on their return journey too. So those transfers are correspondingly faster also. It is still significantly quicker to reach Brugge from Oostende-Brugge Airport (logically enough). And the airport is actually located within Oostende, so you require only a short taxi / bus transfer if that city is your destination. Note that many passengers flying NW England to Brussels arrive at Charleroi Airport as well. Journey times are longer from here.
I believe that there is a market for an airlink from NW England to this region of Flanders (especially for Brugge), as ferries Dover-Calais and the Channel Tunnel do not offer us the ease of access taken for granted by the SE market. Travel from Manchester to Oostende using the Hull-Zeebrugge ferry requires a road / rail journey and an overnight crossing.