The Christmas holidays at Brussels Airport will bring a few novelties for passengers. Brussels Airport will introduce a separate lane at security screening for families with young children during the busiest days of the Christmas holidays. This week, Brussels Airport also opened a new drop-off area for departing passengers. Passengers to non- Schengen destinations can do their Christmas shopping in the new walk-through shop and other retail outlets in Pier B. Finally, good news for coffee-lovers among the holiday travellers at Brussels Airport: Starbucks reopens in the departure hall.
Brussels Airport promises to be cosily busy during the Christmas holidays. In common with last year, around 180,000 passengers are expected in the run-up to Christmas. The absolute peak day is Friday 23 December when no less than 65,000 passengers are expected, both passengers departing to the sun or to visit relatives and those arriving to spend Christmas in our country, either as tourist or to stay with relatives. For all these passengers, Brussels Airport has a lot of news in store.
Family lane
Brussels Airport, together with Disney Baby and G4S, is paying special attention to families who set off during the Christmas period. On the busiest days during the Christmas holidays, Brussels Airport will open a ‘family lane’. The children will meet an enormous Winnie cuddly toy under the exclusive Winnie The Pooh arch, where they will receive a fun comic book.
Families with young children will be invited on these busy days to use the ‘family lane’ to go through security screening where they will have all the space and time to pass through screening with the children and will be given help with prams and baby food. Earlier tests have shown that on busy days this allows for the screening to run a lot smoother, both for the families and other passengers, which makes the start of their holidays at Brussels Airport much more pleasant for everybody.
New drop-off area
On Monday 19 December, Brussels Airport opened a new drop-off area. Drivers can simply follow the “Drop-off” signs. The new Drop-off is located on the same level as the bus station and in walking distance of the terminal. For the comfort of the passengers, the walkway to the terminal is covered.
The Drop-off area is exclusively intended for quickly dropping off passengers leaving on a trip. Parking is not possible and the driver may not leave the vehicles. People wanting to accompany passengers to the departure hall or who come to pick up passengers, can make use of P1, P2 and P3, where the charge is 2 euros per half hour.
Starbucks is back and more shopping news…
The Starbucks baristas are back in the departure hall of Brussels Airport! The airport was the first place where the world-famous coffee house opened a branch in our country. Later, bars were opened in the two piers of the airport.
The Starbucks bar in the departure hall was rebuilt during the renovation of the departure hall following 22 March. The baristas will again be serving their familiar coffee and other specialities in the departure hall from Wednesday 21 December.
Passengers who are travelling to a non-Schengen destination can, from Tuesday 20 December, enjoy a range of new shops. Since 17 March of this year, non-Schengen passengers go to Pier B through Connector and passport control. On this new route, a number of temporary shops were opened to bridge the gap until the new shops were opened.
From Tuesday 20 December, these passengers will, after leaving passport control, be welcomed in a new walk-through shop, where, in addition to the usual duty-free products such as perfume, cosmetics, liquor and chocolate, they will also find the Belgian Beer Corner. In addition to the walk-through shop, a number of other shops will be opening: SummerTime with jewellery and sunglasses and The Belgian Chocolate House with the three leading Belgian brands Neuhaus, Godiva and Corné Port-Royal. Earlier this month, the new Antwerp Diamonds shop with exclusive jewellery opened in Pier B.
In the coming months, even more shopping fun awaits the non-Schengen passengers, for after the opening of the shops mentioned above, the renovation of the shopping area towards gates B will continue and more new or refurbished shops and restaurants will open their doors.
