News

Brussels travel update

24 Mar 2016 by BusinessTraveller

Brussels airport remains closed following Tuesday’s terrorist attacks in the city which killed at least 30 people.

A statement posted on the airport’s website this morning (March 24) said:

“Brussels Airport extends its deepest sympathy to the friends and relatives of the victims of the explosions in the departures hall on Tuesday.

“Following these attacks, there will be no passenger flights into and out of Brussels Airport today, March 24 and tomorrow Friday March 25.

“Because the forensic investigation is still underway, we currently have no access to the building. Until we can assess the damage, it remains unclear when we can resume operations. “

Given the uncertainty on when flights will resume to the airport, Easyjet has made the decision to temporarily switch its Brussels services to Lille airport. In a statement the carrier said:

“The decision to open the airport rests with the Belgian authorities and the airport company and this situation may extend over the Easter weekend.

“In the meantime we are very conscious that people may still wish to travel to and from Brussels. We have therefore taken the decision to temporarily transfer our Brussels operation to Lille Airport which is located in Northern France.

“This is approximately 120 kms from Brussels and has good and frequent rail connections with Brussels. Our scheduled flight times will remain unchanged. The new flight details are shown in the table here.

“Passengers flying into Lille for onward transfer to Brussels will be offered a free transfer service which we will detail when you arrive into Lille airport.  Passengers wanting to travel from Brussels via Lille with easyJet are asked to make their own way from Brussels to Lille airport, and present themselves at our check-in desk in Lille airport for a new boarding pass to meet the scheduled departure time.

“We would ask customers to arrange and pay for this transfer to Lille themselves, but we will reimburse all reasonable costs presented to our customer services team. These reasonable costs could include bus, train tickets or hire car expenses.

“If the flight is early the next morning and customers want to travel to Lille the previous night and stay in a local hotel, these cost will also be reimbursed. Customers are asked to keep all receipts and send them in via our website.”

Fellow low-cost carrier Ryanair has been operating its Brussels Zavantem services into its main Brussels base at Charleroi airport (located around 45km south of the city) since the attacks, and will continue to do so until at least March 29 - see current advice on the carrier's website here.

BA’s travel update page was last updated at 1645 on March 23, and does not yet take into account the news that Brussels airport will remain shut on Friday March 25.

But the carrier does says that “If you have a confirmed booking for travel to/from Brussels between Saturday 26 March and Tuesday 29 March (inclusive) then you can rebook your flight for a later date or to an alternative destination.”

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