Brussels Airport Departure Lounge Reopens, Reconstruction Remains Tough

Brussels airport has partially reopened its main departure lounge on Sunday after the terror attacks in March, but putting the airport back to normal function remains a difficult task. Two explosions rocked the airport on March 22 and killed 16 people, followed by one at a metro station which opened again only last week. The so-called Islamic State group claimed the responsibility for the attacks which claimed 32 lives. For the passengers who arrived at the airport Monday, the journey was difficult. There were long queues in the car park as they had to be checked before they entered anywhere near the airport building. "I've been standing in line for the past hour, and whether I make my flight or not is an open question at this point," said a passenger Alex Anglin. "We have been here for more than 30 minutes. We have still not checked in our luggage. We are still in the queue. She is supposed to fly at 11:00. It's 09:40 now, she's still outside," said another passenger Frederick Ennin. "Three quarters of an hour wait, it's ok. We don't think it's very useful because if there would be a bomb, it can explode here. But for the rest everyone is ok with it I think," said a passenger named Ingrid Boye. The white wall behind which the first attack occurred has been constructed while the repair at the airport is still under way. Yet at the moment, with the airport departure hall opening again and with some temporary constructions completed in the car park, the airport authorities said they are operating at somewhere near 80 percent of full capacity. At where the second explosion happened on March 22, a temporary wall has now been constructed, on which two memory boards have been put up by the airport for people of Brussels to come and write their condolences to the victims of these attacks. Clearly, it was a very emotional day for the airport staff and for the city, but also there is economic sense in getting the airport reopened, in getting passengers traveling through it. They now say that they can process around 40,000 passengers per day and that is significant, since hotels in the city center are reporting that they are only running at 10 or 20 percent capacity. That is obviously got something to do with people's fear for traveling there in the wake of the attack, but the city and the government say that they want to get up to full capacity as soon as possible, and get Brussels back to normal. More on: http://www.cctvplus.com/news/20160502... Subscribe us on Youtube:    / cctvplus   CCTV+ official website: http://www.cctvplus.com/ LinkedIn:   / cctv-news-content   Facebook:   / newscontent.cctvplus   Twitter:   / newscontentplus