Qualla: Brussels Airport

Brussels Airport: Introduction

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Rafaël Delaedt (Arafi), CC BY-SA 2.5. On 22 March 2016 at 07:58 local time, two bombs went off in the departures hall at Brussels Airport. One near the American Airlines and Brussels Airlines check-in desks. One next to a Starbucks. Sixteen people died there that morning - travelers in the queue with their bags at their feet, ground staff at the counters. Sixteen more would die seventy-three minutes later in a coordinated attack at Maalbeek metro station, a few stops away in the European Quarter. The airport was closed for eleven days. It reopened with temporary tents, at less than twenty percent of its previous capacity. Within four months it was hosting record loads of ninety thousand passengers a day. Belgium had been hit, and Belgium continued. Brussels Airport - 'EBBR' to pilots, 'Zaventem' to almost everyone in Belgium - is the country's main gateway and the largest single employer in the city's hinterland. Its history is stranger than that of most national airports: it was begun by the German occupation force in 1940, named after the wrong village by accident, almost killed by the bankruptcy of Belgium's national airline, and rebuilt around a glass 'Connector' that became one of Europe's largest security platforms. Most days, the only drama is whether your gate is in Pier A or Pier B.

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Image: Rafaël Delaedt (Arafi) | CC BY-SA 2.5

Brussels Airport: Built by the Luftwaffe in the Fog

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit J. Miers, CC BY-SA 1.0. The airport's first runways were laid down by the German occupying force in 1940. The Luftwaffe needed a back-up airfield east of Brussels, requisitioned 600 hectares of farmland in the parish of Steenokkerzeel, and built three runways in a triangle pattern: 02/20, 07L/25R, and 1...

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Image: J. Miers | CC BY-SA 1.0

Brussels Airport: Sabena, and What Came After

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Thomas Quine, CC BY 2.0. For half a century, Brussels Airport meant Sabena. The Belgian national carrier had been founded in 1923 and flew under the yellow 'S' tail from Zaventem to destinations across Africa, the Americas, and Asia. In November 2001, with global aviation reeling from the September 11 at...

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Image: Thomas Quine | CC BY 2.0

Brussels Airport: Sixteen at the Departures Desks

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jean Housen, CC BY-SA 4.0. On the morning of 22 March 2016, three members of an Islamic State cell entered the main departures hall pushing luggage carts. Two of the bombs detonated. The third was located by police and destroyed in a controlled explosion. Sixteen travelers and ground staff were killed at t...

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Image: Jean Housen | CC BY-SA 4.0

Brussels Airport: Trains, Trams and Diabolo

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Wouterhagens, Public domain. Brussels Airport sits twelve kilometers northeast of the city center, and it is one of the most rail-connected airports in Europe. The station is on Level minus-one, directly under the terminal. Four or more trains per hour run to Brussels-South, where Eurostar trains continue to...

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Image: Wouterhagens | Public domain

Brussels Airport: Diamond Heists and Drones

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit LBM1948, CC BY-SA 4.0. Brussels Airport has accumulated stories well beyond the everyday ones. On 18 February 2013, eight men in police uniforms cut a hole in the airport perimeter fence, drove two vehicles onto the apron, and in five minutes removed 120 small parcels - roughly fifty million U.S. dolla...

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Image: LBM1948 | CC BY-SA 4.0