Brussels Airport (BRU) infrastructure: future

[lumumba]

Nice thx very much for the pictures.

[Inquirer]

Airport door mockup on the left

What could be the use of this mockup?
it seems way too low to actually test if equipment is A380 suitable, to me?

[Poiu]

Anbody an idea about the profitabily of the shops in the connector?
When you walk past they are always empty.
Just wondering if it wouldn’t be better and safer to get rid of them and separate departing from arriving passengers. If one day panic breaks out during peak time, the designers of the connector will have a lot of blood on their hands!

[luchtzak]

Just wondering if it wouldn’t be better and safer to get rid of them and separate departing from arriving passengers. If one day panic breaks out during peak time, the designers of the connector will have a lot of blood on their hands!

I am sure all necessary measures have been taken to a avoid situations like you mention ...

[Poiu]

Just wondering if it wouldn’t be better and safer to get rid of them and separate departing from arriving passengers. If one day panic breaks out during peak time, the designers of the connector will have a lot of blood on their hands!

I am sure all necessary measures have been taken to a avoid situations like you mention ...

Let’s hope we never have to find out!

[Homo Aeroportus]

Airport door mockup on the left

What could be the use of this mockup?
it seems way too low to actually test if equipment is A380 suitable, to me?

It is meant to be brought up by a forklift. Same was done at the A Pier.
Training on docking an A388 is very important and difficult. Reaching door M1 is similar to any other aircraft though the door sill here is at 5.10 m AGL, but M2 and especially the Upper deck U1 (at 7.80 m !)require skilful manoeuvring.
The head of the boarding bridge is awfully close to the N°2 engine and the slats. You have a mental vision of red stickers saying "touch me and you're fired".

The attachment A380 Doors.png is no longer available

A380 Doors.png (7.59 KiB) Viewed 3453 times

H.A.

[Inquirer]

Airport door mockup on the left

What could be the use of this mockup?
it seems way too low to actually test if equipment is A380 suitable, to me?

It is meant to be brought up by a forklift. Same was done at the A Pier.
Training on docking an A388 is very important and difficult. Reaching door M1 is similar to any other aircraft though the door sill here is at 5.10 m AGL, but M2 and especially the Upper deck U1 (at 7.80 m !)require skilful manoeuvring.
The head of the boarding bridge is awfully close to the N°2 engine and the slats. You have a mental vision of red stickers saying "touch me and you're fired".


A380 Doors.png
A380 Plan View.png

H.A.

Very informative post, thanks for sharing your knowledge.
That upper deck door indeed seems hard to get to: I suppose they don't load catering via those doors due to the closeness of the engine either...

Who needs to be trained exactly?
And is this not mainly an automatic docking system, with just manual intervention whenever needed?

[Homo Aeroportus]

The pregnant whale has a good appetite.
In an Airbus standard config, there are in total 78 Full Size Trolley Equivalent to be loaded.
Typically this is :
- 28 FSTE through door M2R
- 16 FSTE through door M4R
- 11 FSTE through door M5L
- 23 FSTE through door U1R
So yes part of the catering is loaded directly onto the upper deck as well as via the engine-shaving access to door M2.

The Ground Handling Co drive the bridges normally at BRU.

Automatic docking was trialled in Canada some 10 years ago and after having had words with an aircraft fuselage the idea was dropped.

Recently a Chinese manufacturer has announced that they will start automatic dockings at AMS around the end of this year I thing. Technically feasible but you need to pay attention to not only trucking right but also making sure there is no obstruction on the ground, signal ok to open door after docking, inserting safety shoe and so on.
But even with manned ops, there are interlocks to prevent bridges from colliding into each others.
I guess that some guys in DXB could dock an A388 with one eye closed but initially it must be a sweating experience.

H.A.

[Passenger]

New plans have leaked - when true of course:
http://www.nieuwsblad.be/cnt/dmf20180121_03312944

https://www.aviation24.be/airports/bruss ... -residents

[Aerofool]

A lot of information is in the report of the 3rd session of Forum 2040:
https://www.brusselsairport2040.be/en/v ... ound-noise

[Boavida]

Renovation of the arrival hall is ongoing (very, very slowly) The ceiling of the arrival hall was removed months ago and is still not yet replaced.

Anyway, it is much needed. Hopefully the arrival hall will look more modern and a brighter with the new lightning (much needed!)

Brussels Airport released this pic of the result:

[RoMax]

Renovation of the arrival hall is ongoing (very, very slowly) The ceiling of the arrival hall was removed months ago and is still not yet replaced.

The arrivals hall is way too small to partly close it and such a renovation requires to work throughout the whole area more or less at the same time. So they can only work during the night when rotating section by section throughout the area. So yes it's painfully slow, but the industrial and well lit look of it is not the worst either, better than weeks of heavy disturbance by working during daytime hours with thousands of passengers being heavily impacted every day.

[Inquirer]

The core of the problem is that the arrival 'hall' (lets just call it arrival floor, as there is no hall at all), is having a rediculously low ceiling because somebody decided to build departure level right on top of it (which btw also has the same problem of a too low ceiling at check in): it might have looked good on paper and when it's empty its just doable, but when its full of people i'ts really really claustophobic. Lights won't solve the problem: they need to knock it down and replace it by a new and open all glass construction like you see them allover Europe these days.

[Boavida]

^^ Absolutely true. Let's face it, the current terminal with this ridiculous concrete flyover (viaduct) in front of it (meaning that arriving passengers arrive under an ugly, claustrophobic concrete bridge and the same thing is true for departing passengers that arrive by taxi, bus or drop off area) does not longer fit a modern 21st century airport.

What BRU really needs is a COMPLETE new terminal building at the location of the old Swissport/DHL buiding. You could easily connect this new terminal to the Connector and both piers.

[Passenger]

New plans have leaked - when true of course:
http://www.nieuwsblad.be/cnt/dmf20180121_03312944
https://www.aviation24.be/airports/bruss ... -residents

A lot of information is in the report of the 3rd session of Forum 2040:
https://www.brusselsairport2040.be/en/v ... ound-noise

There was a public meeting at Steenokkerzeel today - report VRT:
https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/nl/2018/01/24 ... okken-vee/

Arnaud Feist was guest at VRT tv, Terzake (broadcast not online yet at this very moment). He said that minister Bellot will not realize the Aviation Law because he will be busy with elections 2019.

[Passenger]

New plans have leaked - when true of course:
http://www.nieuwsblad.be/cnt/dmf20180121_03312944
https://www.aviation24.be/airports/bruss ... -residents

A lot of information is in the report of the 3rd session of Forum 2040:
https://www.brusselsairport2040.be/en/v ... ound-noise

There was a public meeting at Steenokkerzeel today - report VRT:
https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/nl/2018/01/24 ... okken-vee/

Arnaud Feist was guest at VRT tv, Terzake (broadcast not online yet at this very moment). He said that minister Bellot will not realize the Aviation Law because he will be busy with elections 2019.

Interview with Arnaud Feist (in Dutch):
https://www.vrt.be/vrtnu/a-z/terzake/20 ... d20180124/
See topic 2 there = "Kan de luchthaven uitbreiden?"

[Boavida]

Funny/sad situation at BRU: the former terminal (and new corporate building) are looking better and more modern than the actual terminal building...

[lumumba]

Funny/sad situation at BRU: the former terminal (and new corporate building) are looking better and more modern than the actual terminal building...

But that's logic it's newer....it's always like that you want them to construct older buildings to make it look the same!!!!!!

[Frederic_K]

[webstermc]

And according to facebook page of brussels airport:

Mark your agenda: 19 April, showcase of the new triple boarding bridge at Pier B. Efficient, passenger-friendly, convincingly comfortable and unique in Europe. The bridge will be put to the test with an Emirates A380 - coming to Brussels for this special occasion! (tickets to and from Brussels for that day are still available)

So the A380 is coming back to BRU