Autumn holidays are traditionally a busy period for Brussels Airport, resulting in long queues before the airport’s security checkpoint. Last weekend, Belgian press reported about the disrespect of social distancing in these queues. Apparently, the airport faced a similar situation this Saturday morning, although to a lesser extent, but much to the dislike of some passengers, who rushed to social media to complain. Brussels Airport denied the claims.
@TUIflyBelgium voici nos conditions ce matin à @BrusselsAirport … j’espère q les vols nous attendront!!?? pic.twitter.com/noebTIfQwE
— Mcdll (@Mcdll1) November 7, 2020
@BrusselsAirport Could you not have spread out the queues for security? Packing us all in like cattle in a pandemic might not be the best call… I understand it's early (6am) so not everyone is here, but at least spread the lanes across the available space! pic.twitter.com/8WaD282lqB
— Chloë Smith (@ChloSmith18) November 7, 2020
Around noon, the airport tweeted to its passengers: “It’s busy at Brussels Airport during autumn break. We recommend that you arrive 2 hours in advance for a Schengen flight and 3 hours for a non-Schengen flight.”
It’s busy at #brusselsairport during autumn break. ?? We recommend that you arrive 2 hours in advance for a Schengen flight and 3 hours for a non-Schengen flight.
— Brussels Airport (@BrusselsAirport) November 7, 2020
Last Sunday, Brussels Airport announced to have opened an additional security lane to better manage the influx of departing passengers. More passengers decided to travel through Brussels due to an increase of last-minute bookings.
Brussels Airport’s spokeswoman Ihsane Chioua Lekhli addressed the following explanation to Aviation24.be:
“I see that you have copied an article from Le Soir about the hustle and bustle at Brussels Airport yesterday. We have already contacted the editors of Le Soir about this, but the situation yesterday cannot be compared at all with last weekend.
Based on a tweet, the newspaper wrote that there were long queues, but the crowds were by no means extreme. At peak time yesterday, there were waiting times of up to 30 minutes, which is a normal peak traffic. Because of the social distance, the lines are longer, and a photo does not always show that distance.
We have noticed that some passengers arrive at the airport quite late, so we tweeted about this again to remind people to get to the airport on time.”
