Brussels airport partially re-opens amid tight security
Three Brussels Airlines flights took off from Brussels airport on Sunday with massively tightened security.
They were the first to operate at Zaventem since March 22 when a double suicide bomb attack at the airport killed 16 people.
Under the new security regime, passengers travelling to a temporary departures area are screened in their cars on the access road, with special cameras checking number plates.
Passengers will then undergo additional police checks and ID and boarding pass checks at the entrance to the temporary departures area.
Only those who are flying will be allowed to enter.
Passengers will then undergo the usual checks before making their way to the departure gates.
The tighter measures were put in place after police unions threatened industrial action over security concerns.
The threats delayed the planned partial re-opening of the airport from Friday to Sunday.
"Thanks to this work, your work, we can today spread a message of hope," the airport’s CEO Arnaud Feist told staff and passengers as the first flight took off yesterday.
"Today we show our strength, show that we have risen again, that we will not allow ourselves to be beaten. It is the start of a new beginning, even if the is still so much work to be done to return things to a normal situation, to the extent that it will ever again be normal."
The airport is not expected to be running to full capacity until at least the end of June.
The closure is estimated to be costing Brussels Airlines €5m a day.
Ryanair confirmed it will continue to operate all flights to Brussels into and out of Charleroi airport up to and including Thursday April 7.
Customers booked to fly from Brussels must make their own way to Charleroi and they need to arrive three hours before departure to allow for additional security checks.
British Airways has cancelled flights to and from Brussels up to and including April 7.
"We are keeping flights from Friday April 9 under review and are awaiting more information from the authorities in Belgium," it said.
EasyJet is operating alternative flights to Lille in France.
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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