Reopening Brussels Airport after the 22/03/2016 terror attacks

[stefanel]

Hello community!

I avoided booking flights in the past weeks because I cannot be at the airport 3h before (I'm flying short-haul and short fligths, I generally go max 40 min before).

When do you think the airport will be operating normally with no checks, or at least not huge lines?
I want to buy some FR flights soon.

Thanks so much !

stef

[nordikcam]

Hello community!

I avoided booking flights in the past weeks because I cannot be at the airport 3h before (I'm flying short-haul and short fligths, I generally go max 40 min before).

When do you think the airport will be operating normally with no checks, or at least not huge lines?
I want to buy some FR flights soon.

Thanks so much !

stef

May be, as said before...it will be beter to fly via RTM, AMS, LIL or FRA...

[teach]

Short of staff maybe? Are they using the same people for the checks outside, the same company? So maybe they did not hire anyone new?

I've recently started regularly seeing ads on facebook by G4S where they are recruiting new people specifically for BRU.

Anyway, there is SOME hope that the situation with the waiting times will improve: the politicians have now started saying the same things we here have been saying for a while, and are calling for drastic changes to eliminate the waiting times. Even the police unions appear to be coming to the realisation that the way things are going now is unacceptable. Next Tuesday a high-level meeting is planned to discuss how to improve the situation.

[sn26567]

Full photo-report of the reopening of the Departures Hall:

https://www.aviation24.be/airports/brussel ... -recovery/

[Acid-drop]

Hello community!

I avoided booking flights in the past weeks because I cannot be at the airport 3h before (I'm flying short-haul and short fligths, I generally go max 40 min before).

When do you think the airport will be operating normally with no checks, or at least not huge lines?
I want to buy some FR flights soon.

Thanks so much !

stef

May be, as said before...it will be beter to fly via RTM, AMS, LIL or FRA...

Or other airports in Belgium...
Some airlines are giving alternatives.

[BRUpilot]

Emirates is already using it's normal schedule as of today, may 1st. STD in Dubai is 8:20 (local time), STA in Brussels is at 13:25 (local time).

[sn26567]

May be, as said before...it will be beter to fly via RTM, AMS, LIL or FRA...

Or other airports in Belgium...
Some airlines are giving alternatives.

And why not BRU?

1. Other airports in Belgium have the same 3 hrs rule imposed by the Federal Police.
2. Airports abroad generally ask to be there 2 hrs in advance. If you add the time from BRU to those airports, you reach easily 3 hrs, and you spend a lot on fuel or on train tickets.
3. BRU needs YOU, and by flying from BRU you save Belgian jobs.

[barnabelg]

1. Other airports in Belgium have the same 3 hrs rule imposed by the Federal Police.

Thanks for confirming this. That rules out all Belgian airports then. (Out of principle, I will not use any airport that requires me arriving 3 hours before the flight. It's simply not feasable.)

2. Airports abroad generally ask to be there 2 hrs in advance. If you add the time from BRU to those airports, you reach easily 3 hrs, and you spend a lot on fuel or on train tickets.

To be honest, I will swap one hour standing in line in BRU for 2 hours sitting in a Thalys or ICE train, any time. It's not only about the time, but also about how that time can be spent. And no, other airports do not require being there 2 hours in advance. One hour to 45 minutes is generally enough.

The fact is that the current situation, the aftermath of the attacks, has a serious impact on travel in and out of Belgium and the area around it (and I do realise that it's a minor issue compared to what the actual victims have to go through). So if I am going to spend more time travelling I might as well make it more comfortable. And right now using BRU is not the most comfortable travel solution.

[teach]

May be, as said before...it will be beter to fly via RTM, AMS, LIL or FRA...

Or other airports in Belgium...
Some airlines are giving alternatives.

And why not BRU?

1. Other airports in Belgium have the same 3 hrs rule imposed by the Federal Police.
2. Airports abroad generally ask to be there 2 hrs in advance. If you add the time from BRU to those airports, you reach easily 3 hrs, and you spend a lot on fuel or on train tickets.
3. BRU needs YOU, and by flying from BRU you save Belgian jobs.

The difference is that the two hours earlier other airports ask you to be there are generally for people who have not yet checked in, and need to check luggage. If you've checked in online and only have hand luggage (the majority of business and many other passengers) you don't need anywhere near that.
In BRU from what we're hearing you DO need those three hours, and you'll be spending the majority of that standing in line, queueing to get into the damn building, in the rain if you're out of luck with the weather, because of the useless security theater show they're imposing on people.

[webstermc]

In BRU from what we're hearing you DO need those three hours, and you'll be spending the majority of that standing in line, queueing to get into the damn building,

We also heard stories of people only needed 1h to get through.
My wife neede 1,5h on a sunday evening. Far away from 3h needed.

As far as I know, we have stories of 1h and stories of more then 2h needed (especially in weekends according to me).

And, there are also stories of people who are saying that they needed >3,5 hours but that is their own fault. They came too early. You are only allowed in the pre-check in 3h befor the flight.

[sean1982]

3. BRU needs YOU, and by flying from BRU you save Belgian jobs.

Totally the wrong reasoning andre. The people who stay away are helping BRU more in the long term than the people who "put up with it" at the moment. Only when the figures get dramatic our ministers will maybe have the balls to challenge these ridiculous unions.

I needed yesterday 2h10 just to get through security and from car to gate it was 2h45 WITHOUT checked in bags. That is quite simply ridiculous! In fact, I was qeueing longer then the flighttime to Lisbon

[Poiu]

We also heard stories of people only needed 1h to get through.
My wife neede 1,5h on a sunday evening. Far away from 3h needed.

When we were having a coffee at Starbucks, your wife told me it took her 1.5 hour to Starbucks.
So to the end of the A pier plus being at the gate at -30 would make 2h15 in total, not that far away from the 3 hours suggested and she was travelling with hand luggage only.

[webstermc]

I don't know who you were talking too (and how do you know my wife ), but my wife needed 1,5h from the A201 (so before parking) till the Gate (A43). But my wife indeed dit short stop at starbucks on her way....

I have her what's app pictures she send me during her journey in the airport, so I'm sure about the timings...

[Poiu]

2. Airports abroad generally ask to be there 2 hrs in advance. If you add the time from BRU to those airports, you reach easily 3 hrs, and you spend a lot on fuel or on train tickets..

You have to calculate the travel time from home to the airport, not from BRU.
Ghent BRU is one hour, Ghent-CDG 2h15, Lille can be a bit difficult at certain times, but less than the Brussels ring road, between Lille and CDG the motorway is always empty. All terminals in CDG have parking in the basement, just take the elevator and you are at check in. Walking times to the gates are a lot shorter than in BRU. I almost always make it from Ghent to the gates in less than three hours. In BRU all had to go well to make it in 1h45, often I don't need a connection flight from CDG, so the door to door travelling time is a lot shorter.
Same for people living North of Antwerp and AMS or those living in the East and DUS.

[Poiu]

I don't know who you were talking too (and how do you know my wife ), but my wife needed 1,5h from the A201 (so before parking) till the Gate (A43). But my wife indeed dit short stop at starbucks on her way....

I have her what's app pictures she send me during her journey in the airport, so I'm sure about the timings...

Indeed to A43, add 10 min to the end and be at the gate at -30 (some airlines close the gate at -20), so total time 2h10.
(She made sure I was not visible on the pics )

[lumumba]

I departed from Rotterdam and it's very very easy

[Poiu]

It would help if BRU would publish actual waiting times on their website.

[Flanker2]

I don't know who you were talking too (and how do you know my wife ), but my wife needed 1,5h from the A201 (so before parking) till the Gate (A43). But my wife indeed dit short stop at starbucks on her way....

I have her what's app pictures she send me during her journey in the airport, so I'm sure about the timings...

1,5h from outside to the gate, boarding starts 0,5h before departure, so 2 hours before flight.
If the queue is a bit longer, you end up waiting 0,5-1 hour longer, hence you need to be there 3 hours before.


I arrived back in BRU uneventfully last week but the queues for departures seemed to have gotten longer.
This time though, BRU staff were visible along the queues and to stop the queue before the uncovered part, to avoid exposure to rain. It's a bit of progress one can say.
Still, I'm very pissed at BRU for making me stand in line for over an hour outside in the cold.

SN also put a container wherein pax can check flight info by the bus stops. Pretty useless imo.
The staff should be outside with the pax, handing out soup and promoting that Brussels Airlines feels solidarity with the pax who are the victims of this whole situation. Sure, that would be like taking advantage of a bad situation to do promotion, but what's to stop any airline from doing it themselves?
This is an opportunity for the home carrier to demark itself!

I have a return trip next week which I booked last week, despite the whole mess. It doesn't help that I have to stand in line but my alternative was CRL where frequencies are worse and I had to lose an entire day.

Will report as we go.

Pics from a week ago:

[sn-remember]

May be, as said before...it will be beter to fly via RTM, AMS, LIL or FRA...

Or other airports in Belgium...
Some airlines are giving alternatives.

And why not BRU?

1. Other airports in Belgium have the same 3 hrs rule imposed by the Federal Police.
2. Airports abroad generally ask to be there 2 hrs in advance. If you add the time from BRU to those airports, you reach easily 3 hrs, and you spend a lot on fuel or on train tickets.
3. BRU needs YOU, and by flying from BRU you save Belgian jobs.

You cannot save the Belgian jobs if the Federal Police (and the gov) are killing them.
Somebody has to say enough ?
About every country in the EU was hit by terrorism mass killings at a certain moment past or present, they all recovered rapidly without hurting their vital economic and social culture too much. Belgium is still largely unrecovered at this point and we don't see the end of the tunnel yet.
Did you read this ? Nobody likes to receive critics, more so when they come from France, but still we would be silly not to hear them ...
http://www.liberation.fr/debats/2016/04 ... ir_1449226
..
About the 3 hrs rule vs the 2 h rule abroad ..
You can make it way shorter than 2 h abroad. It took me about 5 min last time in EIN (entrance to gate, no luggage). BTW the car parking (in my case 10 min walking to the terminal) was full of Belgian cars.
But anyways, you must understand that 3h is uncompetitive whatever the way you present it. I mean you'll see lot of Belgian cars in the airports abroad, many B. people in trains to cdg/ams/cgn etc but the opposite flow (abroad to B.) is dead. It's a 2nd loss for the B. airports.
The only way out is to get your act together and rework the whole process to do BETTER than the competition. Too much is at stake (also the SN takeover, the CRL expansion plans and much more IMO)

[sn26567]

It looks like there is a problem this morning at the main departures building: