Freighter flights resumed Wednesday at Brussels Zaventem Airport, although it remains closed to all passenger traffic following Tuesday’s terrorist attacks. A cargo source at Brussels Airport said landside cargo operations had resumed Wednesday morning, “and the airport will open again for full cargo flights operating at apron 9, the BRUcargo area”. Brussels Airport Authority said there would be no passenger flights Wednesday or Thursday, but Brucargo (the cargo zone at Zaventem) landside had been cleared, and as soon as Brucargo airside is cleared, cargo flights could resume.
Sources indicate that some cargo flights bound for Brussels or scheduled to operate from the Belgian capital had been re-routed to other airports, and that cargo security screening had been increased following the attacks.
A spokesman for Cathay Pacific Cargo, which has an off-line sales and trucking operation at Zaventem, said that since the attacks, even ‘known shipper’ cargo has had to be security screened and that any freight coming into Brucargo cannot stay in warehouses for more than 24 hours. There are also reports that following the attacks the Belgian aviation authority DGLV/DGTA had ordered that only air cargo that has been screened in-house would be allowed to fly. Cargo coming from a known consignor or a regulated agent has to be rescreened if there is a presumption, however small, that the secure supply chain has not been respected or has been breached, it said.