Security concerns delay partial re-opening of Brussels airport
A strike by police at Brussels Zaventem has forced officials to delay the airport’s partial re-opening this evening.
The airport said yesterday it was operationally ready to re-open to some flights, but according to the BBC police unions are now staging industrial action over security concerns.
The airport has been closed since March 22 when its departure hall was hit by a double suicide bomb attack.
Vincent Gilles, the president of the SLFP, Belgium’s largest police union, told the BBC its members ‘cannot continue as if this day has not happened’.
He said police feel security measures put in place by the airport company are insufficient.
The airport said its planned partial re-opening could not now go ahead.
It has hoped to start operating again but only at 20% of normal capacity, receiving only 800 departing passengers every hour.
Ryanair said earlier 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.
BA has cancelled flights to Zaventem up to and including next Monday; it is operating a limited service to nearby Liege instead.
EasyJet is operating alternative flights to Lille in France.
Police continue to search for the third man who took part in the airport attacks, who fled the scene without detonating his explosive device.
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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