Brussels Airport to partially reopen following terror attack

Brussels Airport is planning to reopen on 3 April, for the first time since the bomb attacks that left 16 dead and 270 injured. It will be running a limited number of passenger flights, but its CEO Arnaud Feist warned it will take 'months' for things to return to normal.

A reopening depends on tests on temporary check-in systems and new security measures. There will be Brussels Airlines flights to Faro in Portugal, Turin in Italy and Athens in Greece.

Since the attacks, the airport has diverted services to regional airports or countries such as the Netherlands and Germany, after suicide bombers brothers Khalid and Brahmin el-Bakraou blew themselves up at the terminal. Another bomb went off at a nearby metro station, killing a further 16 people.

Even if the airport resumes limited services, it would only be at a fifth of its full capacity, which is normally around 5,000 passengers an hour. Feist called it a sign of hope but admitted the attacks were the "darkest days in the history of aviation in Belgium".