• World

Brussels Airport Will Take ‘Months’ to Fully Reopen After Attacks, CEO Says

1 minute read

Brussels airport will most likely take several months to resume full operations following this month’s terrorist attacks, its CEO said Tuesday.

Arnaud Feist said Zaventem terminal will have to be rebuilt “from the air conditioning to the check-in desks” as a result of the bombs that ripped through it a week ago, the BBC reports.

The attacks, which also targeted a prominent metro train station, have resulted in 32 deaths, and left nearly 100 people more still in hospital. Hopes that the airport would reopen on Wednesday, after around 800 workers were called in to test temporary operations, were quashed when the authorities announced that it will remain closed for the time being.

About one-fifth of the airport’s normal 5,000-passenger daily capacity is expected to resume initially. “The provisional structure will not be able to absorb the usual number we had before the attacks,” Feist told the BBC.

[BBC]

More Must-Reads From TIME

Write to Rishi Iyengar at rishi.iyengar@timeasia.com