Brussels airport back in business after fatal attacks
Print Edition
BRUSSELS Airport reopened yesterday with three “symbolic” flights and strict additional checks for passengers, marking a new high-security era for air travel in Belgium after attacks by Islamic State suicide bombers.
The key travel hub has been closed since two men blew themselves up in the departure hall on March 22 in coordinated blasts that also struck a metro station in the Belgian capital, killing a total of 32 people.
A Brussels Airlines plane bound for the Portuguese city of Faro became the first to take off from the reopened airport.
Tearful employees and government officials marked the 12:40pm departure with a minute’s silence and a round of applause, while on the tarmac fire engines and police vehicles formed a guard of honor.
“We’re back,” Brussels Airport Chief Executive Arnaud Feist said after watching the plane take to the skies.
Two further flights, to Athens and Turin in Italy, were also scheduled for departure in what Feist called a “symbolic” reopening of the airport. The same three planes were to return to Brussels with passengers later yesterday.
The restart has been hailed as the beginning of a return to normal for a traumatized country, but the shadow of the attacks loomed large.
Two big white tents were serving as temporary check-in facilities to replace the blast-hit departure hall, and passengers were asked to come three hours before departure to allow time for tight security checks.
The first travelers to arrive were met by heavily armed police and soldiers on the access roads to the airport. There was also a strong security presence inside the tents where travelers walked through metal detectors and had their bags screened before checking in and being allowed to enter the main building.
Loukas Bassoukos, a 20-year-old student waiting for his flight to Athens, said it felt “a bit weird” to be among the first to return to the bomb-hit airport.
“Many people died, but I think we can overcome this,” he said.
Under the new system, only passengers with tickets and ID documents are allowed into the makeshift departure hall. The airport will initially be accessible only by car, and all vehicles will be subject to spot checks.
The number of flights will be stepped up gradually, but the airport will be able to work only at 20 percent capacity with the temporary facilities, handling 800 to 1,000 passengers an hour.
It will take months to repair the departure hall, Feist said.
The damage from the blasts was severe, with pictures from the scene showing the building’s glass-fronted facade in shatters, collapsed ceilings and destroyed check-in desks. Feist said he expected the airport to start running normally again from late June or early July.
The closure of the airport has wreaked havoc on the travel industry, triggering a drop in tourist arrivals and forcing thousands of passengers to be rerouted to other airports in and around Belgium.
Brussels Airport, which claims it contributes about 3 billion euros (US$3.4 billion) annually to the Belgian economy, has not released any figures on the economic impact of the shutdown, but top carrier Brussels Airlines has said it has been losing 5 million euros daily.
With 260 companies on-site, the airport is one of the country’s largest employers.
Belgium’s tourist industry was already suffering from the aftermath of Islamic State attacks in Paris last November, which killed 130 people.
A number of those attackers had links to Brussels and the city went into lockdown for several days after the carnage in France.
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