Flights to resume at Brussels airport, CEO says
BRUSSELS- A partial, symbolic airline service will begin Sunday at Brussels Airport after a 12-day shutdown of passenger service caused by adeadly bombing attack, the airport's chief executive said Saturday.
Arnaud Feist, CEO of Brussels Airport Co., said the Brussels Airlines flights to Athens, Turin in Italy and Faro in Portugal, the first of which he said should take off around 2 p.m. local time were chiefly symbolic.
Effective Monday, Belgium's biggest airport should be back at around 20 percent of capacity and able to process 800 passengers an hour.
It has been closed since devastating suicide bombings in the airport's main terminal and a Brussels subway train killed 32 people and wounded 270 on March 22.
Speaking at a joint news conference, Feist called it "a sign of hope" and a demonstration of "shared will" that even partial passenger service could resume so soon following what he called "the darkest days in the history of aviation in Belgium."
He said he was expecting the formal go-ahead from the Belgian government later Saturday.
The March 22 attacks, in which three suicide bombers also died, were claimed by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. To minimize the chances of a repeat, Belgian Federal Police spokesman Michael Jonniaux said new security measures have been ordered at the airport, including spot checks of vehicles before they arrive, the closing of a drop-off parking area outside the terminal, and the screening of all people, their ID and travel documents and baggage before they are allowed to enter the facility.
The bombers had been able to enter the airport's check-in area with suitcases packed with high explosives and nails, and the resulting blasts collapsed the ceiling, shattered windows and caused great damage.
Until the terminal can be fully repaired, Feist said departing passengers will first enter a temporary structure erected on the tarmac, then go to a specially built area for check-in.
There will be no access by rail or public transport to the airport for the foreseeable future, he said.
Brussels Airport, which usually handled about 600 flights a day, served about 1.5 million people in February, the month preceding the attack. Feist said he hopes full service can be restored by the end of June or beginning of July in time for the summer vacation season. (See below for information about current travel options.)
Also Saturday, Belgian police, some on horseback, moved in to detain some two dozen protesters at Brussels' Bourse Square, breaking up a demonstration to protest Islamophobia. Authorities in the Belgian capital, fearing violent disorders, banned all demonstrations after a group of right-wing hooligans congregated at the same square last Sunday.
In the Molenbeek neighborhood, where a far-right France-based group had planned to demonstrate, at least one person was detained, and witnesses saw several minor clashes between police and young people.
Molenbeek, home to one of the largest Muslim communities in Brussels, has been a hotbed of radical Islamic sentiment and was home to some of the men who staged the Nov. 13 attacks in Paris that killed 130, and were also claimed by Islamic State.
The Belgian Federal Prosecutor's Office announced that a Belgian national has been charged with participating in the activities of a terrorist group for his alleged role in another plot to attack France, which was uncovered after the arrest of a Frenchman and the discovery of a huge cache of weapons and explosives.
A statement from the prosecutor's office on Saturday identified the 33-year-old Belgian suspect only as Y.A. It said he's in custody, and has been charged in the case that stemmed from the arrest of Reda Kriket in the Paris suburb of Boulogne-Billancourt last week.
Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said an "imminent" attack had been thwarted with Kriket's arrest and the discovery of the explosives stash in suburban Argenteuil outside Paris.
A third man was arrested in Rotterdam in the case, which officials say is separate from the attacks in Paris and Brussels.
Here are the latest Brussels policies for several major airlines:
- Delta confirms that it will terminate service between Brussels and its hub in Atlanta, Georgia until March 2017, though it will continue to operate between Brussels and New York (JFK) as soon as flights are cleared to resume.
In the meantime, the airline suggests that customers reroute to or through Paris, Amsterdam, Dusseldorf or Luxembourg. Passengers with Brussels tickets through April 18 can rebook with no penalty - although the fare could be higher - if they begin their rescheduled travel by April 30. Or they can cancel their reservation and apply the ticket's value toward a new ticket for one year, according to Delta's website, although they could incur change fees and higher fares.
- United says it will waive change fees and any difference in fare for passengers who reschedule a Brussels flight through April 30 if the new trip follows the same route or goes to or from London, Paris, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Dusseldorf or Luxembourg. For trips after April 30 and within a year of the ticket's purchase, United says it will waive change fees but the fare could increase.
- American has canceled its Brussels flights through April 15. It is waiving change fees for Brussels trips that were bought before March 29 and scheduled to fly through April 22 on American, British Airways or Iberia. Passengers can rebook to or through several other European cities - London's two main airports, Paris' two main airports, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Frankfurt, Dusseldorf, and Liege Bierset, Belgium - with no change fee. In some cases, American says it will waive any change in fare as long as the passenger flies in the same class of seat covered by the original ticket.
- Air France says that passengers who bought tickets to Brussels before March 23 for travel through April 18 can get a refund or rebook their trip through April 18. Rebooked travel must be completed no later than April 30.
- British Airways passengers booked for Brussels flights through April 9 can claim a refund, rebook a later date at no extra charge, or pick another destination. The airline says it will operate flights to and from Liege, Belgium, through Monday.
- Lufthansa has canceled flights to and from Brussels until at least Wednesday and is offering passengers flights from Munich and Frankfurt to Liege instead. It has a shuttle service between Frankfurt and Brussels. Passengers whose Brussels flights on Lufthansa, Swiss, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, Germanwings or Eurowings have not been canceled can rebook in the same class for travel before Oct. 31.