Europe > Western Europe > Belgium > Brussels Airport reopens to fewer passengers

Belgium: Brussels Airport reopens to fewer passengers

2016/04/04

This is 12 days next suicide bombers destroyed its departure hall and killed 16 people. Belgium’s major airport had not handled passenger flights since two suspected Islamist militants carried out the suicide attacks. Those bombs and a separate one on a metro train in the capital killed 32 people, excluding the three bombers.

The initial of three scheduled flights set for Sunday was due to depart for Faro in Portugal at 1.40pm local time, with only about 60 to 70 passengers. Planes will as well go to Turin and Athens later in the day, with three return flights set for the evening.

Arnaud Feist, the airport’s chief executive, said yesterday would be an emotional day for a lot of airport staff, but described the partial reopening as a sign of hope. Today, the airport will serve a far wider range of destinations, inclunding one plane as well due out to New York and two additional to cities in Cameroon, Gambia and Senegal.

A lot of flights have been rerouted to Belgium’s regional airports or other nearby hubs such as Amsterdam and Paris, with high-speed trains to and from Brussels packed. Brussels Airport has warned passengers to arrive three hours before their flights due to increased security and approaching by car. The normal train and bus services are not running.

Appropriate cameras will be set up to read number plates, there will be random checks of vehicles and the drop-off zone will not be accessible. Passengers and their baggage will be checked on arrival and there will be increased patrols of armed police and military. The airport is one of the major in Europe, handling 23.5 million passengers per year. It links the Belgian capital, headquarter city of the European Union and NATO, with 226 destinations worldwide through 77 airlines. With its temporary check-in zone, it will only be able to handle some 800 departing passengers or about five to six flights per hour, around 20 % of previous capacity.

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