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

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sn26567
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Re: Re-opening Brussels Airport after the 22/03/2016 terror attacks

Post by sn26567 »

According to Brussels Airport CEO Arnaud Feist, the situation at the airport will return to normal only after a several months.
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Flanker2
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Re: Re-opening Brussels Airport after the 22/03/2016 terror attacks

Post by Flanker2 »

Like has been said, there is nothing that the federal police at the airport could have done to prevent this bombing. With security checks at the entrance, you only move the problem elsewhere. If not outside the airport building, to a busy railway station or shopping mall. A life is a life, whether they are at an airport or elsewhere.

Having to beg for a bulletproof vest is not very joyful.
But there are thousands of other jobs out there, so if you don't like it, you have an ethical and safetyproblem with your employer and the only way to resolve it is to inconvenience other people, you should look for another job. There are enough guys willing to take their place out there, it's not like they're loading heavy luggage all day long in mninnus temperatures. I've also only sporadically seen them patrolling in the terminal.

As for BRU's unwillingness to invest in the police force and security, can't say that am very happy to hear that. 30+ Euro's in taxes going straight to a pension fund while ISIS HQ is just around the corner. No thank you.
This is a case of both sides being unreasonable.


There is a solution to this problem though.
I turn your attention to NRT airport, where until recently they checked ID's and boarding passes of anyone entering the airport premises. They also asked some questions. People without a valid ID and/or boarding pass or behaving suspiciously could not enter the airport building. This included pax coming in by car and by railway.
There were no queues anywhere because most pax were checked at a road gate before entering the airport road.

The system has been replaced by a state of the art camera system that singles out each person, with facial recognition software.

Any of these two systems could have prevented last week's attacks occurring at BRU (but not elsewhere), given that the terrorists were clearly suspiciously carrying gloves on only one hand and this would have been detected in real time instead of afterwards.
Last edited by Flanker2 on 28 Mar 2016, 18:51, edited 1 time in total.

Inquirer
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Re: Re-opening Brussels Airport after the 22/03/2016 terror attacks

Post by Inquirer »

according to De Tijd, BRU will resume at only 20% of its normal capacity due to the increased security checks and the limited infrastructure: some 40,000 passengers per day max that is.
It seems Brussels Airlines will be the first, whereas charter airlines will be last: how they are going to decide wh'llo get the remaining capacity to fill, still needs to be decided by the slot coordinator.
http://www.tijd.be/ondernemen/luchtvaar ... 7-3085.art

Flanker2
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Re: Re-opening Brussels Airport after the 22/03/2016 terror attacks

Post by Flanker2 »

Inquirer probably means 4.000 pax per day.
I hope that they allocate all slots to SN initially, and as soon as SN is reestablished at 100% capacity, add other airlines.

I think that the proposed plan to flow the departing pax directly to the connector where they will be checked in, is very workable. I wish for the customer airlines and for BRU itself that it had been ready sooner, but so be it.

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RoMax
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Re: Re-opening Brussels Airport after the 22/03/2016 terror attacks

Post by RoMax »

Flanker2 wrote:Inquirer probably means 4.000 pax per day.
I hope that they allocate all slots to SN initially, and as soon as SN is reestablished at 100% capacity, add other airlines.
SN's hub operations indeed should have the very first priority, these are very difficult to replicate at another location (while the ANR, LGG, ZRH, FRA operation is to a certain extent workable on the short term, it is extremely expensive and difficult to sustain for a longer period). The other home carriers Thomas Cook and Jetairfly are lucky to have relatively small operations and can easily relocate to the Belgian regional airports where they have been established for years. These ops also put a lot of pressure on the limited check-in facilites (alternative check-in methods almost non existent and almost everyone is taking checked luggage).

But there are also a lot of (Schengen) operations that do not put a lot of pressure on check-in capacity (with a lot of online check in and limited checked luggage) and do not need border control, these could return to BRU quite fast as well.

Luckily SN also has a very high degree of online/mobile check-in amongst its European passengers. A key factor will be to have a very efficient and quick bag drop (unfortunately the home-printed bag tags are just in an early phase and available on only a very limited number of routes, this would help as well).
Flanker2 wrote: I wish for the customer airlines and for BRU itself that it had been ready sooner, but so be it.
It's not only a matter of having the infrastructure itself ready, as I earlier said, things would have been so much easier if this was a plain disaster/accident destroying the departure halls instead of a terrorist attack.

FLYAIR10
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Re: Re-opening Brussels Airport after the 22/03/2016 terror attacks

Post by FLYAIR10 »

according to De Tijd, BRU will resume at only 20% of its normal capacity due to the increased security checks and the limited infrastructure: some 40,000 passengers per day max that is.
Inquirer probably means 4.000 pax per day.
I guess it is 20% of 40000 = 8000/day. Initial check-in capacity would be limited to 800/hour.
Not too many flights. 4-6 short haul and 1LH/hour?

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luchtzak
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Re: Re-opening Brussels Airport after the 22/03/2016 terror attacks

Post by luchtzak »

Brussels Airport is still looking for volunteers for the airport "dry-run" tomorrow: http://www.brusselsairport.be/en/contact/trial/

A valid BIAC-badge is mandatory...

flymd11
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Re: Re-opening Brussels Airport after the 22/03/2016 terror attacks

Post by flymd11 »

I turn your attention to NRT airport, where until recently they checked ID's and boarding passes of anyone entering the airport premises. They also asked some questions. People without a valid ID and/or boarding pass or behaving suspiciously could not enter the airport building. This included pax coming in by car and by railway.
There were no queues anywhere because most pax were checked at a road gate before entering the airport road.

The system has been replaced by a state of the art camera system that singles out each person, with facial recognition software.

Any of these two systems could have prevented last week's attacks occurring at BRU (but not elsewhere), given that the terrorists were clearly suspiciously carrying gloves on only one hand and this would have been detected in real time instead of afterwards.
I can't really see that either of the systems would have prevented the attack:
- Valid ticket: anyone can get that;
- Facial recognition system: you need an effective database to match it against (Belgium + neighbours do not have this at present) not to mention that there are well documented ways around such recognition systems. They are very effective at catching low-risk, non-suspecting targets, but a lot less useful for others like trained terrorists.

Had their been better surveillance, the terrorists would have found an alternative to gloves. As for security at the entrance of the terminal, they could just as well have blown themselves up in that queue and killed as just as many (if not more) people. Or they could just have hit more of the many other targets in Brussels. Looking at Turkey where airport access is more difficult, recent terrorist in Istanbul have hit tourist sites and busy city streets.

While I am sure the security industry will offer plenty "solutions", I would rather have fewer terrorists rather than more security. If just a part of the money that we spend on the security apparatus was instead put into community driven actions in the difficult neighborhoods in Brussels and other Belgian cities, we may be a step closer to a sustainable solution.

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Conti764
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Re: Re-opening Brussels Airport after the 22/03/2016 terror attacks

Post by Conti764 »

Flanker2 wrote: But there are thousands of other jobs out there, so if you don't like it, you have an ethical and safetyproblem with your employer and the only way to resolve it is to inconvenience other people, you should look for another job.
As they did... The number of police officers working at BRU has taken a steep dive, jeopardising operations and resulting in less patrols and security... They only have about half the workforce they had some 10 years ago...
As for BRU's unwillingness to invest in the police force and security, can't say that am very happy to hear that. 30+ Euro's in taxes going straight to a pension fund while ISIS HQ is just around the corner. No thank you.


It's actually the government who has to invest, not BAC...

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sn26567
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Re: Re-opening Brussels Airport after the 22/03/2016 terror attacks

Post by sn26567 »

How the passenger flows will be organised after reopening the airport (at 20% capacity) according to De Tijd:

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domtom
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Re: Re-opening Brussels Airport after the 22/03/2016 terror attacks

Post by domtom »

Does that mean the airport is opening as planned tomorrow? I'm due to fly Lufthansa on Saturday. Am obviously checking with the airline, but wondering if they'll be flying from Brussels or Liege by then?

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Re: Re-opening Brussels Airport after the 22/03/2016 terror attacks

Post by Apuneger »

domtom wrote:Does that mean the airport is opening as planned tomorrow? I'm due to fly Lufthansa on Saturday. Am obviously checking with the airline, but wondering if they'll be flying from Brussels or Liege by then?
All depends on the tryouts that will start at 13:00 LT. Around 800 volunteers will test the new procedures and passenger flows.

It's safe to assume that, in best case (!) between 50-100 flights should be able to use BRU as from tomorrow. This is a best case scenario, not taking into account any findings of the tryouts, additional measures requested by government and/or police, any "strike" that might occur etc...

It's very well possible that the airport remains closed for another few days.

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webstermc
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Re: Re-opening Brussels Airport after the 22/03/2016 terror attacks

Post by webstermc »

Does anyone know why there was such a traffic jam towards the airport this morning? Which activity on the airport is causing that much traffic? Are these reated to the 800 persons needed for the test (which only starts this afternoon)?

Since Today I'm working at Zaventem (Da Vincilaan) and I should take the A201 in order to access my work. Due to the traffic Jam I had to take another exit on the ring...

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luchtzak
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Re: Re-opening Brussels Airport after the 22/03/2016 terror attacks

Post by luchtzak »

webstermc wrote:Does anyone know why there was such a traffic jam towards the airport this morning? Which activity on the airport is causing that much traffic? Are these reated to the 800 persons needed for the test (which only starts this afternoon)?

Since Today I'm working at Zaventem (Da Vincilaan) and I should take the A201 in order to access my work. Due to the traffic Jam I had to take another exit on the ring...
My guess is that lots of people stop at the roundabout to have a look at the scene, causing a traffic jam. Correct me if I am wrong.
Rubbernecking wrote:Rubbernecking is the act of gawking or staring at something of interest. The term rubbernecking refers to the physical act of craning one's neck, performed in order to get a better view.

Rubberneck has been described as a human trait that is associated with morbid curiosity. It can be the cause of traffic jams (sometimes referred to as "Gapers' blocks"), as drivers slow down to see what happened in a crash.

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Re: Re-opening Brussels Airport after the 22/03/2016 terror attacks

Post by sn26567 »

Brussels Airlines is offering student jobs to reinforce its social media teams in the coming days.
André
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mad_fab
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Re: Re-opening Brussels Airport after the 22/03/2016 terror attacks

Post by mad_fab »

The airport will also be closed for passenger flights into and out of #brusselsairport tomorrow Wednesday 30 March.
https://twitter.com/BrusselsAirport/sta ... 5990885376

Freken
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Re: Re-opening Brussels Airport after the 22/03/2016 terror attacks

Post by Freken »

sn26567 wrote:Brussels Airlines is offering student jobs to reinforce its social media teams in the coming days.
Do you already have a link, or is it not "official" yet? ;)

Everett
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Re: Re-opening Brussels Airport after the 22/03/2016 terror attacks

Post by Everett »

Dears,

Does anyone know when bus and train traffic will resume?
I guess when the airport opens again but if it opens only for 20% then train and bus will offer also reduced service?

It's still hard to ask such questions

My respect for all airport workers in those difficult days and months to come!

mad_fab
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Re: Re-opening Brussels Airport after the 22/03/2016 terror attacks

Post by mad_fab »

Everett wrote: Does anyone know when bus and train traffic will resume?
Hard to tell, but given the position of the train station, it's probably going to be a while before the airport station reopens.

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Conti764
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Re: Re-opening Brussels Airport after the 22/03/2016 terror attacks

Post by Conti764 »

I can't believe it will take months to repair the terminal... A few weeks, agreed, but a couple of months??

I don't claim to be an expert but most work is (seems?), superficial.

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