Reopening Brussels Airport after the 22/03/2016 terror attacks

[b-west]

The delays are very much at the metal detector and luggage screening. Not at the entrance to those tents. And yes, those tents were a demand from the police force there, to be put in place by BAC. And what we see now is BAC doing a half arsed job of it (you can't sell chocolates in those tents I guess). There are even fewer lines available in the tents in front of the terminal than there were at the temporary check-in, they've gone from 8 to 6. It's very simple really. If I want to process 2000 pax/hr and I only build facilities for 1500pax/h, there are gonna be queues. That's inevitable.

I kinda hope it isn't, but one can't help but think this is done deliberately. You first build it so that it's bound to fail, and then you shout: look it's not working! You use your political contacts to put some pressure on and get your chairman of the board acting all emotional on his facebook page, then play the press a bit... and everybody is happily howling along. Nobody asks: hey, why isn't it working here? Why wasn't the checkpoint built to capacity?

[convair]

Flying out of BRU this morning so I could see by myself how long it takes to proceed.
SN to FCO at 07:40, so Departure 1, i.e. “normal” terminal. First time for me since I previously had to go through the temporary facilities.

Considering the large number of flights in the early morning, I decided to play safe and here is my timeline :
0523 : on A201 Fly over.
Only 2 cars in front of me at police road check.
0528 : parked at P2. I recommend top floor, less crowded and .. nice view.
0530 : entering pre-screening tent. 1 person ahead in same line.
0533 : entering the terminal. Strange feeling. Bought a magazine, chat with military here 5 Linie, Bn Bevrijding van Leopoldsburg. Others outside were from 4 Group CIS from Marche.
0544 : passed through security check (fast lane, others were busy but estimate no more than 15 min processing as 9 lines were open). Young lady said she reported on duty at 0330 so I guess some Pax arrive really early.
0552 : The Loft, well attended.
0558 : Buon appetito.
Conclusion : at this time of this day, arriving even less than 1 hour before STD should have been OK.

No doubt that others, flying at a different time of the day, will have different experience.

H.A.

So you could have taken a flight leaving at, say, 06:20, so about 1 hour after you reached A201 flyover. It doesn't mean you would have gotten your 7:40 flight if you had reached the flyover at 6:40.

I just missed you, Homo Aeroportus. I was at the entrance of Pier A, waiting for my gate number to be announced.

I had a similar time line.
0620 police control after the A201 flyover. 15 cars before me but only slightly slowed down.
0625 parked at P2,upper floor (7). No other choice.
0626 through the stairs to the tents (you could wait for the elevators for ages). Queue of 20 people on each of the two lines. Two other tents for people coming from railway station, P1 and P3.
0635 out of pre screening. No ID check. My boarding pass checked on my phone just before body scan, and then I had to put it on the baggage belt. Strange!
0650 breakfast at Belle et Belge, the best value for money.
0710 Walk to Connector. Five people before me at one of the 7 open lines. Boarding pass check, but still no ID.
0720 At Pier A. Waiting for gate nr...

In less than one hour at the gate, breakfast included. I woke up way too early!

Same for you, André. You could have caught a 7:40 flight. You don't mention the departure time of your flight, but I doubt you could have arrived 1h 20 min before and still catch it.

BTW, you mention P3; it was said before that it was forbidden to use. Is it still the case?

[Flanker2]

The delays are very much at the metal detector and luggage screening. Not at the entrance to those tents. And yes, those tents were a demand from the police force there, to be put in place by BAC. And what we see now is BAC doing a half arsed job of it (you can't sell chocolates in those tents I guess). There are even fewer lines available in the tents in front of the terminal than there were at the temporary check-in, they've gone from 8 to 6. It's very simple really. If I want to process 2000 pax/hr and I only build facilities for 1500pax/h, there are gonna be queues. That's inevitable.

I kinda hope it isn't, but one can't help but think this is done deliberately. You first build it so that it's bound to fail, and then you shout: look it's not working! You use your political contacts to put some pressure on and get your chairman of the board acting all emotional on his facebook page, then play the press a bit... and everybody is happily howling along. Nobody asks: hey, why isn't it working here? Why wasn't the checkpoint built to capacity?

This seems to be exactly what is going on.
Don't forget that behind these luchtzak.be avatars hide people working for the airport and politicians.
It's easy to expose them now, just take those who want the pre-screening removed and who ignore all your very logical arguments.

[b-west]

Oh boy, I'm not out to expose anybody here. And I have no intention of getting involved in another of the all too common mudslinging contests on this forum. I pretty much said what I had to say on this matter. If people here have a different viewpoint, so be it. Nobody ever changes their mind based on a forum anyway

[sn26567]

The bottle neck is NOT at the metal detector .... Its at the entrance
And who decided the metal detector should be there in the first place? Not BRU, not G4S

From what I could see this morning, there was no control at the entrance of the tents. My boarding pass was controlled together with the metal detector. That and the baggage scan are really what causes the delay.

And by the way my ID was never controlled, even when boarding the plane.

[teach]

This seems to be exactly what is going on.
Don't forget that behind these luchtzak.be avatars hide people working for the airport and politicians.
It's easy to expose them now, just take those who want the pre-screening removed and who ignore all your very logical arguments.

You're not seriously making up conspiracy theories on the spot, are you? Because holy shit!

I don't work for or at the airport, I'm not a politician, nor do I work for one, and I want the pre-screening removed. It's a knee-jerk reaction that damages the airport's reputation, costs thousands of jobs and DOES NOT do anything to stop terrorist attacks. The very most it can HOPE to achieve is that next time, the terrorists will blow themselves up in a busy station, a market, a concert, on the metro (again), on a bus, at a festival, or one of the thousands of other places where they can make just as many victims as they did at BRU. It IS NOT an efficient nor effective way to spend money on combating terrorism. You don't counter terrorism by spending millions on turning ONE place into a fortress while there are COUNTLESS other places where the terrorists could cause just as much suffering. Spend that money where it's actually needed (the actual counter-terrorims units that are ridiculously understaffed, and state security) and the results will be MUCH better.

What we're seeing now is security theater, nothing more, nothing less. I mean, for crying out loud, even the Israelis don't have this nonsensical systematic pre-screening of everyone's luggage that we see in BRU today. And if there's one country that knows how to deal with terrorism, it's the Israelis. If they don't even do this, why should we?

[teach]

Lo and behold, an agreement has been reached! Starting tomorrow, pre-checks will be done randomly. Some people will still be checked, but not everyone.

I guess it's a start...

In Dutch: http://deredactie.be/cm/vrtnieuws/binnenland/1.2646866

[sean1982]

Omg b-west ... Are you sure you're going to be able to sleep with all that insecurity?

[Conti764]

Lo and behold, an agreement has been reached! Starting tomorrow, pre-checks will be done randomly. Some people will still be checked, but not everyone.

I guess it's a start...

In Dutch: http://deredactie.be/cm/vrtnieuws/binnenland/1.2646866

Yep, just untill some lefty nitpicker complains about the fact that 'some profiles' are more checked then average...

[b-west]

Omg b-west ... Are you sure you're going to be able to sleep with all that insecurity?

Well, I've been sleeping bad since some time. Walking around through pools of blood does that to a person. But thank you for your concern.

[b720]

Randomly = racial profiling

This will get ugly

It should be all, or no one. Anything else is unacceptable.

[Conti764]

Randomly = racial profiling

This will get ugly

It should be all, or no one. Anything else is unacceptable.

I disagree... Do you need to check mom and dad with their children? Or granny and grandpa?

If some people do get checked more often then others, they should blame those nitwits who blew themselves up in Brussels and Paris and who constantly threaten to repeat said attacks everywhere in Europe.

[b720]

No my friend. You don t check anyone, as is the case in all European airports.
You can not make everyone looking 'exotic' pay the price of the attacks.
Security of the aircraft and pax flying should be guaranteed by usual controls in the airport
After check in. No measure can stop someone willing to die blow themselves up.
This new policy is a farce. Racial profiling is against the law, and against European law as well.
And against all that our democracy stands for.

[sean1982]

Omg b-west ... Are you sure you're going to be able to sleep with all that insecurity?

Well, I've been sleeping bad since some time. Walking around through pools of blood does that to a person. But thank you for your concern.

Well, with the current checks in place the pool of blood would be 200 times bigger. Of course YOU would be quite safe
Please dont pretend its about the general public's safety, cause it never has been

B720 ... Profiling of all passengers is being done for ages already in many different airports around the world with a high degree of succes. THAT is effective

[Jetter]

Omg b-west ... Are you sure you're going to be able to sleep with all that insecurity?

Well, I've been sleeping bad since some time. Walking around through pools of blood does that to a person. But thank you for your concern.

Next time think twice before you start a Facebook page claiming you speak on behalf of BRU employees. As you can see in this thread that was far from the truth.

[Conti764]

No my friend. You don t check anyone, as is the case in all European airports.
You can not make everyone looking 'exotic' pay the price of the attacks.
Security of the aircraft and pax flying should be guaranteed by usual controls in the airport
After check in. No measure can stop someone willing to die blow themselves up.

Okay. But as it is obvious police will not give in on this issue, you either have the choice to do it like now with all consequences, or you start picking people out who fit the profile.

This new policy is a farce. Racial profiling is against the law, and against European law as well.
And against all that our democracy stands for.

Profiling has been done for years at many airports for sensitive flights. Nobody is advising racial profiling, though... Our democracy is a nice thing, but not when people abuse it for personal goals, even less so when others lose their lifes...

[Passenger]

No one says the checks will be done on racial grounds. They will be done randomly. That's all. Some people will be checked, some won't. A 20-25 year old male has more chance to be checked then a 80-85 year old female.

There is also nothing wrong with being checked. It doesn't give you the label "would be terrorist".

[Passenger]

Edited:

No one says the checks will be done on racial grounds. They will be done randomly. That's all. Some people will be checked, some won't. A 20-25 year old very white male has more chance to be checked then a 80-85 year old very black female.

[b-west]

Next time think twice before you start a Facebook page claiming you speak on behalf of BRU employees. As you can see in this thread that was far from the truth.

Forgive me if I value the opinion of the people I've talked to at the airport higher than that of one lone airline employee here, who only has to pass through the terminal once a day on his way to work. Btw, it bears repeating, I didn't start that page. I merely supported it. My sincere thanks go out to the person who started it. I hope it wasn't all for nothing.

[Conti764]

Omg b-west ... Are you sure you're going to be able to sleep with all that insecurity?

Well, I've been sleeping bad since some time. Walking around through pools of blood does that to a person. But thank you for your concern.

Next time think twice before you start a Facebook page claiming you speak on behalf of BRU employees. As you can see in this thread that was far from the truth.

Is there actual proof he started that page? This topic is - again - going in a wrong direction. Besides the possibly false accusation, your reply has nothing to do with his statement you are quoting.

He or she might have it's own reasons to be in favour of the measures taken. You might disagree, as do I, but your statement is not only unsensitive but also a good example of somebody who hasn't been in the situation b-west apparantly has been in.