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Brussels airport receives clearance to resume services

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Brussels airport has received the go-ahead from fire services and the Belgian Civil Aviation Authority for a partial resumption of passenger flights.


However, authorities have yet to take a formal decision on the restart date of Zaventem airport following last Tuesday’s terrorist bombings.


No passenger flights will take place until this evening at the earliest, the airport said.


The announcement followed Ryanair confirming that it will continue to operate flights to Brussels Charleroi airport until April 7 following the closure of Zaventem.


No British Airways flights are planned to Brussels until Tuesday at the earliest, with the airline flying to Liege instead.


“We are keeping the situation regarding flights from Tuesday 5 April under regular review and are awaiting more information from the authorities in Belgium,” BA said.   


EasyJet is to continue using Lille in France as an alternative to Brussels today.


A provisional infrastructure that would allow the airport to receive 800 departing passengers per hour, or 2.5 million a year, was completed at Zaventem in the past few days.


That would only allow for about 20% of the normal capacity.


A statement from the airport operating company said: “The airport is technically ready for a re-start of passenger flights in the temporary infrastructure foreseen for check-in.


“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 re-start is the formal political approval. In the meantime, it has been decided that there will be no passenger flights until Friday evening.”

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