The deadly terrorist attacks of March 22 may have temporarily brought to a halt Brussels Airport’s future expansion plans, but the airport is working feverishly to restore normalcy in its passenger and cargo operations as its first priority.

The latest figures released by Brussels Airport indicate that in March and April the airport clocked 1.2 million and 1.1 million passengers respectively, posting a 29.1% decline for March and a 46.5% decline in April over the year-earlier corresponding months. Cargo volume dropped by 20.9% in March and 4.8% in April compared to the year-earlier months, respectively. The drop in passenger and cargo volumes after the terrorist attacks was not unexpected. Brussels Airport attributes these negative growth rates to the temporary suspension of operations at the airport from March 22 until April 3. But in the final weeks of April, the decline in the airport’s passenger and cargo traffic was arrested.

By mid-April, the airport claims, about 70% of its peak capacity on commercial passenger flights had been restored.

Cargo volumes were also affected by the March 22 attacks, though Steven Polmans, Brussels Airport’s cargo chief, says that cargo infrastructure, located on the other side of the airport, was not damaged; the damage was caused, mainly, in the public area of the departure terminal. “Cargo was only hit by the closure of the airspace on the first day and the slow start-up of passenger traffic and, with it, belly cargo,” Polmans said.

Indeed, freight traffic was ready to resume on March 24 – two days after the attack – but because of suspension of passenger operations until April 3, no belly cargo could be carried on passenger flights.

“Damage [on the passenger side] was extensive, but luckily the structural damage is very limited. The biggest problem today is the area where vertical circulation of passengers is done to connect them between the different levels, from train station to bus station to arrivals and departure,” Polmans told Asia Cargo News.

Brussels Airport says that the full-freighter and integrator segments posted growth in April, with the full-freighter segment posting 19.1% growth, and the integrator segment 2.7%, over last year. The decline in belly cargo on passenger flights is attributed to the limited number of long-haul flights during March and April, but belly cargo volume has been rising each week as flights to most destinations have recently resumed.

Before the attacks, Brussels Airport had handled 23.5 million passengers and 489,000 tonnes of freight annually. In April 2016, the airport handled 39,129 tons, down 4.8% from 41,105 tons in the year-earlier month. From January to April 2016, Brussels handled 148,491 tons, down 7.9% from 161,221 tons in the year-earlier period.

Compared to the badly hit passenger traffic, cargo traffic resumed just after a few days. “Cargo volumes recovered quickly and we saw a week-by-week increase. Passenger traffic is taking more time and depends on the restart of the flights. But we see a very strong increase week after week, with volumes at the end of April being only about 10 to 15% below the figures of last year,” Polmans explained, adding that cargo volumes were slightly below last year’s figures.

The airport’s cargo chief noted that much of the infrastructure should be rebuilt by the end of June for the passenger terminal’s re-opening. “At this stage, it is not yet clear what the financial impact is for our company, as especially on the cost side, there is no full picture yet. But it looks like on the revenue side, we will see a drop of around €100 million (US$112 million),” he said.

Polmans said that some airlines have not yet returned to their normal operations, offering, for example, only four instead of their regular five weekly frequencies. Some long-haul carriers also decided to postpone the launch of a new route, such as United with its second daily Newark flight, or delayed resuming their flights, such as Delta postponing the resumption of its daily Atlanta flight to summer 2017. “But all-in-all, it looks like most carriers will soon return to their original schedules as operated before the attacks. That is very good news for us. No airline took the decision so far to completely stop operations at Brussels,” he said.

Polmans said that morale of airport workers has been very high, with thousands working to get the airport up and running, “very often in difficult circumstances. It is the ambition of our CEO and the airport management to turn these tragic events into an opportunity to start building on what we call the airport of the future.”

Meanwhile, Brussels Airport has strengthened its cargo operations by launching on April 18 a new cargo community organization, Air Cargo Belgium, with Polmans as chairman. The organization will bring all companies under the BRUcargo platform.

By Manik Mehta

International Correspondent | New York