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

[Apuneger]

Brussels Airlines OO-SFW, OO-SFM, OO-SFU and jetairfly 787 are back in BRU

Not sure why the SN A330's are here, but the JAF(TUI) 787 is probably in BRU for scheduled maintenance by T4J.

Best regards,
Ivan

[Passenger]

The police (in Antwerp) is corrupt, and seems to get away with it.

There are indeed 3, 4 or 5 policemen who are charged with extortion from illegal immigrants in downtown Antwerpen. That's not "the police is corrupt". You say that it seems they get away with it, so you seems to know that the judicial/criminal investigation is cancelled? Would be great if you share your source. Stating "the police in Antwerp is corrupt" is like stating pilots are suicidal or truck drivers drink.

The security and system fix need years.We shall need help from other countries, we can not do it alone. We are the "Greece" of security malfunction, we are in desperate need of outside help.

We don't need outside help. Other countries have the same problems as we - trust you've heard yesterday's thread of Islamic State against Cologne Bonn Airport? I've done a group check-in at Amsterdam Schiphol just a few weeks ago. No safety check on the train. No safety check between the railway station and the airport terminal. No safety check at the check-in counter - just a passport check. But Brussels Airport should have installed such checks years ago? No, that's unfair.

The terror threath in Western Europe is not caused by a lack in our safety standards. It's caused because of the presence of extreme hardliners from a non-western religion. Unless we're will to give up the freedom to move where ever we want, there will allways be a safety risk as from now. At the airport, at the movies, at the market, at music festivals, at every single railway station (from Hasselt-Kievit to Cambron-Casteau). I went to a congress in Malaga a few months ago. We had to take the train to downtown. From the same transport company who had those bomb blasts in Madrid. Never felt unsafe. Time heals wounds. Time makes people forget. As long as pour security/safety people don't forget, that's fine.

What really could help us, is that our police unions would focus on the real safety issues, instead of the general anti-government blablabla we're hearing from them now. Some of their complaints about the lack of safey (cfr their public statement in yesterday's newspapers) are really ridiculous: the kiss& ride zone is dangerous, many people leave their cars unattended in front of the departure hall, we don't have a fitness room to maintain our physical condition, ...

[b720]

Antwerp police corrupt (culture) in the sense that it was covered up for a long time. Many of their co-workers and colleagues knew about the malpractices of the specific 3,4, or 5 officers and even gave them nick names. They were not denounced internally. To get back to the real subject here, I agree that we can not be safe, and that is the case everywhere, not only here, but the wrong political choices have been made in the past, and we pay for them now. It has nothing to do with a 'non western' religion, rather frustrated criminals who get brain washed, like in any sect or gang. I refuse to blame Islam (sorry, this is not aviation) as the absolute majority of the victims if ISIS are Muslim, whether in Iraq, Syria, Pakistan etc.. Back to BRU, I guess that when they finally open, the security checks (obsolete IMO) will be intense and they will eventually get relaxed and more relaxed as time passes, as you mention time heals and we forget. It is untenable to expect PAX to arrive at the airport 3 hours in advance for an intra-european flight. This will kill SN, as most people will switch to trains, cars etc.

[convair]

There is a lot to be said about our airports in general.

First of all, they have been transformed into bigger and bigger shopping malls. It would be acceptable if pax who do not need or do not intend to buy anything were allowed to by-pass the shops. It used to be possible; the laws of consumerism have made it impossible; this is UNACCEPTABLE!

Second, it is ABSURD to carry all these goods (especially relatively heavy items such as alcohol bottles!) you buy there onto the planes: it should be FORBIDDEN! More and more airports offer the possibility for arriving pax to buy tax-free items (with unfortunately the, again, UNACCEPTABLE obligation for all pax to walk through the shopping area before reaching the baggage claim area).

Unfortunately, BRU has followed suit on that fashion: the connector is a nice building but we could have done without it and the distance you have to walk is incredibly long (at least, the underground passage had moving walkways!). And, finally, I don't think all that commercial activity is doing anything to enhance security in airports.

[webstermc]

Timetable for 1/04 is back empty on the website of Brussels Airlines.

Are they changing it to BRU? (I really hope it is the case)

[mad_fab]

First of all, they have been transformed into bigger and bigger shopping malls. It would be acceptable if pax who do not need or do not intend to buy anything were allowed to by-pass the shops. It used to be possible; the laws of consumerism have made it impossible; this is UNACCEPTABLE!

Funny, few years ago I was saying this while flying from CRL, praising BRU.
Then, one day, they changed, to force you to do exactly the same in the pier B...

[b720]

I don't have the figures, maybe someone can provide them? but Retail and shopping seem to be one of the largest income for BRU and other airports.

[sn26567]

The Dutch Maréchaussée seems to have the same worries as the Belgian police. Just seen this KLM news release:

Amstelveen, 31maart2016
Wachttijden op Schiphol

Vandaag meldt de Telegraaf dat KLM passagiers oproept om vier uur voor hun reis al aanwezig te zijn op de luchthaven Schiphol. Dit bericht is niet correct.

Wel heeft KLM gisteren haar zorg uitgesproken over de lange wachtrijen op de luchthaven Schiphol. KLM maakt zich zorgen over de grenspassage capaciteit van de Koninklijke Marechaussee op Schiphol met de naderende vakantieperiodes. We raden onze passagiers aan rekening te houden met de drukte in verband met verscherpte controles.

[jan_olieslagers]

And on another forum I read

(we have the same shortage of policemen here in Germany as they have in the Netherlands).

In fact some see a new utility value in private/small aviation, now that airliner travel is so much troubled.

[Passenger]

The Dutch Maréchaussée seems to have the same worries as the Belgian police. Just seen this KLM news release:

Amstelveen, 31maart2016
Wachttijden op Schiphol
Vandaag meldt de Telegraaf dat KLM passagiers oproept om vier uur voor hun reis al aanwezig te zijn op de luchthaven Schiphol. Dit bericht is niet correct. Wel heeft KLM gisteren haar zorg uitgesproken over de lange wachtrijen op de luchthaven Schiphol. KLM maakt zich zorgen over de grenspassage capaciteit van de Koninklijke Marechaussee op Schiphol met de naderende vakantieperiodes. We raden onze passagiers aan rekening te houden met de drukte in verband met verscherpte controles.

Schiphol Airport says that there seems to be too little police staff at the passport control, and airlines say that the e-gates don't always work properly. Sometimes there is a 100m queue at the passport control.

However, in above KLM news release, KLM denies that passengers must be at the airport 4 hours before departure, as was stated in some news articles this morning.

[flymd11]

Schiphol Airport says that there seems to be too little police staff at the passport control, and airlines say that the e-gates don't always work properly. Sometimes there is a 100m queue at the passport control.

Yes, I had the fun experience of a non-Schengen arrival in AMS a fee weeks ago. As an EU citizen, it took 35 minutes in a crowded queue to get through.

[mad_fab]

There will be no passenger flights into or out of Brussels Airport till Friday 1 April included. Our airport is technically ready to resume passenger flights. We are awaiting the decision of the proper authorities on a final date for a partial restart.

https://twitter.com/BrusselsAirport/sta ... 8444419072

Full statement:

Brussels Airport Company has received the go ahead from the fire services and the Belgian Civil Aviation Authority (BCAA) for a partial restart of passenger flights at the airport. However, the authorities have yet to take a formal decision on the restart date. Until Friday evening no passenger flights will take place at Brussels Airport.

The last few days, Brussels Airport Company, public fire services, the BCAA, Federal Police and Defence have thoroughly been evaluating the large scale trial run of Tuesday. Brussels Airport Company has been actively handling the action items of this evaluation for which last night the public fire services and BCAA gave their approval for a restart.

The airport is thus technically ready for a restart of passenger flights in the temporary infrastructure foreseen for check-in. In the past few days a provisional infrastructure that would allow the airport to receive 800 departing passengers per hour, or 2.5 million departing passengers a year was erected. That's about 20% of the normal capacity at Brussels Airport.

On the other hand, arriving passengers will go through the usual baggage reclaim and arrivals in the terminal. This zone was only slightly damaged and has since been restored for use.

The final step for the restart is the formal political approval. In the meantime, it has been decided that there will be no passenger flights until Friday evening.

http://www.brusselsairport.be/en/mediaroom/news/71291/

[mad_fab]

Good news for the arrivals!

On the other hand, arriving passengers will go through the usual baggage reclaim and arrivals in the terminal.

[b720]

Maybe the politicians will like to postpone the decision till after the next general elections..
At least we know where we stand now.
I will keep my comments to myself from now on, as I have nothing but obscenities to say..

[mad_fab]

I might be dreaming but, with the arrivals being OK, could SN for instance do something like this? (MAD is for the example)

LGG -> MAD -> BRU -> LGG?

In short: pick pax in LGG/ANR, go to destination, go to BRU, offload pax (final or connecting), pickup connecting passenger and then go to LGG to pick new pax?

[koja78]

If I would be SN.. I would switch the flights with the most connecting passengers back to BRU ASAP..
Those with mostly O&D can stay at the regionals for now.

[SN539]

Just to understand ... BAC is speaking about 800 pax/hour or 20% of full capacity in the first phase of reopening. On the other hand the destruction of the departure hall has no impact on connecting pax or on pax with hand bagage only. So what percentage does 800 pax/hour represents in terms of passengers travelling with checked luggage. I guess it's more than 20% ? Or does anybody have an idea of the percentage of passengers travelling with checked luggage from BRU relative to the total pax numbers of BRU ?

[koja78]

@mad_fab isn't there a law against these short intra-belgium flights?

[Passenger]

Cargo is quite linked to passenger traffic these days, so it is hurt also. Carriers have upped security measures and a lot more cargo gets trucked.

A lot of flights have been cancelled. No idea about the schedule for the coming days though.

Singapore 747-400F 9V-SFO has just landed (LAX-BRU).

[mad_fab]

@mad_fab isn't there a law against these short intra-belgium flights?

I don't know, but LGG being just a "stop" to bring pax on would that be a problem?