New baggage sorting system at BRU

[convair]

Shopping my dear! What do you think is more important for BRU Airport?

[Flybe]

They could keep their security + shopping level and then above or under it a level with gates and more shops. The connector building is designed (seeing the few renders that have been posted in other topics) big enough for making internally another level in it with it still having a roomy and airy feeling.

BRU airport doesn't seem to realise all their possibilities sometimes... and then indeed consistently choose for more shops. Nothing against shops, but gates is what is needed right now!

As I said, just my 2 cents!

[Tomskii]

On top of that they chose the ugliest submission for the connector building they could choose..

[tolipanebas]

As Tolipanebas says, they will have to expand the A-West zone almost to Machelen if they want to create enough capacity for whole STAR (including 9W).

They better stop wasting time: extra gates are needed and urgently, not more shops or restaurants.

FWIW, Lufthansa thinks BRU has the biggest long haul potential of all of their hubs other than FRA, so if the owners of the airport are really having other ambitions than just running a shopping mall for happy holiday makers leaving on a jetplane to the south of Europe, they better start building that STAR alliance terminal for non-shengen flights in order to accomodate all of the current STAR alliance longhauls, Jet Airways as well as the long haul flights from the home carrier all under a single roof: that alone means close to 20 long haul gates, and that is without any expansion or newcomers even.

[Stij]

Kind of agree, maybe a bit blunt, but as DHL was moving anyway to Brucargo, foresee a 1km A West, creating space for upto 25 widebodies. One can still build it in phases. And put in the masterplan as wel the move of the fuel farm and the extention of A East with 250m, that way we get a 2km mega hub for STAR.

Too long you say? Maybe for origin and destination, but try to change planes in AMS, it goes upto 1,5km as well without changing alliance and with a big part without walkways.

I repeat my idea about moving Schengen flights to Pier B: Keep the arrival level as it is, On the departure level, move border control to about halfway the pier. This way 50% is Schengen, 50% Non-Schnegen. Those flying to Non-Schengen pass thru the Schengen-Zone and the border controll... et voilà. Arriving Schengen-pax are unloaded on the departure level, Non-Schengen on the arrivals level.

Kind regards,

Stijn

[Atco EBBR]

I repeat my idea about moving Schengen flights to Pier B: Keep the arrival level as it is, On the departure level, move border control to about halfway the pier. This way 50% is Schengen, 50% Non-Schnegen. Those flying to Non-Schengen pass thru the Schengen-Zone and the border controll... et voilà. Arriving Schengen-pax are unloaded on the departure level, Non-Schengen on the arrivals level.

Kind regards,

Stijn

Sounds like a plan! Although the B pier is jam-packed full in the morning, it is usually quite deserted in the afternoon and evening, when most traffic is concentrated at the A pier. This would be a good idea to solve that and spread traffic around more evenly. Also definitely better from an ATC point of view...

Still not happy about the connector though, with R3 blocked all traffic to and from Abelag and the new pier A west will have to pass through a bottle neck (INN3 - OUT3)...

[Tomskii]

I personally HATE the B-pier due to the lack of good facilities throughout the terminal when you compare it to the A-terminal.

[Stij]

About the connector, I still don't get why they didn't build a brigde like in LGW or DEN. That would have been great and nobody would have minded that walk... the scenery would have been beautiful.

Cheers,

Stij

[sn26567]

the scenery would have been beautiful

... if not obstructed by shops or restaurants!

[convair]

BRU Airport priorities seem obvious:

1. more gates
2. more gates
3. more gates
4. drop that silly "conn..."

Some creativity is also badly needed: they can fish ideas on this forum, e.g. Stij's bright suggestion to divide B pier for S and non-S flights.

[Conti764]

I don't know if building gates in the connector is much of a solve to BRU's capacity issues. The liner at Google Earth shows free distance between the terminal and the current A-pier at about 180 meters and the distance between two narrowbody gates at the excisting A-pier at 40 meters, giving the airport 6 extra gates (three on each side of the connector) since you need to take the distance in account between those new gates, the excisting first gate at appron 1 south (A43) and the future first gate of the western expansion at appron 1 south which will be a kind of hassle on its own due to the excisting Topaaz building.

Another option the airport has is to build a longer western extension to the A-pier of about a kilometer, this way they'd loose appron 6 and some infrastructure which can be easily relocated. The only thing they'd have to keep in mind is the southern tunnel entrance under Rwy 07R/25L, but this one can be incorporated into the extended concourse. At the very end of this new concourse, a new taxiway 'J' has to be build to cater for the lost current one due to the extension.

The distance between two widebody gates at pier B is 80m, so this way at the extended A-pier they could build up to twenty extra gates (11 at appron 1 north and 9 at appron 1 south), which in my opinion need to be double bridge gates to cater for bigger equipment. Like at the B-pier they could build some narrow body gates in between for the narrow body non-shengen Star Alliance flights (Brussels Airlines, Turkish, Egyptair,...)

If Star keeps on growing at BRU, the could consider to build a whole new terminal 3 at the current location of DHL building 2. This could be up to a 200x95 meter building (19.000 sq. m) with the possibility to build a one sided new concourse at the end of this building all the way to General Aviation, creating another 1000 meter available gate area with in turn 10 extra widebody gates.

Once the Gatewayproject at BRU is completed, tBAC could keep some space for itself and turn the satelite into gates again, together with a new 400m-pier at the location of the old finger south, this way they would lose a single taxiway. The warf of the dropped low cost terminal could be finished and the building can be used for shengen non-Star Alliance flights, with up to 26 narrow body gates (18 at the new pier and 8 at the satelite).

If they would figure out a way to connect the current revamped 'old' terminal (rows 11-14) with some busgates at ground level somewhere around the current terminal building, this terminal can be used for low cost and leisure flights.

They'd have:
-> Terminal 1 for low cost and leisure flights, connected to some no frills busgates at ground level.
-> Terminal 2 for regular non-Star Alliance flights, connected to the B-pier (non-shengen), the new C-pier and the satelite (shengen).
-> Terminal 3 for all Star Alliance flights, with some integrated gates in the terminal and adjacent concourse and the 1,6 km A-pier connected via the connector building./list]

Pretty much room to expand, they only have to use it wisely. If space for maintenance facilities becomes thin, move the military airport to Beauchevain and build some hangars at the current military appron.

*Edit: I once drew a simple plan to make clear what I mean:

[Airbus330lover]

very nice idea !