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Brussels airport re-opens 12 days after terror attack

Posted at 8:36 AM, Apr 03, 2016
and last updated 2016-04-03 08:36:05-04

BRUSSELS (AP) — Three flights will be taking off from Brussels Airport after a 12-day shutdown caused by a deadly bombing attack.

Arnaud Feist, the CEO of Brussels Airport Co., says the Brussels Airlines flights on Sunday to Athens, Turin in Italy and Faro in Portugal were chiefly symbolic.

But effective Monday, he says Belgium’s biggest airport should be back at around 20 percent of capacity and able to process 800 passengers an hour. He hopes full service can be restored by the beginning of July in time for the summer vacation season.

The airport has been closed since devastating suicide bombings March 22 in its main terminal and a Brussels subway train killed 32 people and wounded 270.

Prior to that, the key European hub usually handled about 600 flights a day.