CRI听力:Brussels Airport to Reopen Sunday with Security Boost

Speaking at a news conference on Saturday, Arnaud Feist, CEO of Brussels Airport Company, says a limited number of passenger flights are planned to depart from the airport on Sunday.

"As of tomorrow, Sunday, Brussels Airport should be partially operational. We have three passenger flights planned for tomorrow by Brussels Airlines, to Faro, Turin and Athens. The airport will only be accessible by car or by taxi during the first (few) days. Other modes of transport will be made available as soon as possible."

Passengers will have to use a temporary check-in facility as the airport's departure hall was wrecked in last month's blasts that also struck a metro station in Brussels and killed 32 people.

Another big change is that only people holding a valid ID and a travel ticket are allowed into the terminal.

Michael Jonniaux, spokesperson of the Belgian federal police, says travelers will be subject to additional security checks.

"Before entering the airport locals, there will be a pre-control - a systematic previous control of all people willing to enter the airport. We will control their travel documents and their IDs and compare the two. We will also submit them to a control via a metal detector gate and check luggage too. Fifth, both inside and outside the airport, mixed police/military patrols will be set up."

Arnaud Feist, the head of the Brussels Airport, says renovation work will begin soon to make the terminal return to normal.

"The next stage for Brussels airport will be to start the renovation work in the terminal in order to restore the operations as soon as possible in the departure area. New safety controls will impact the circulation as well as the architecture of the building. All these aspects will be investigated in-depth in order to optimize the experience for our passengers, our partners and our airlines."

The Brussels airport is said to only be able to work at 20 percent capacity using the temporary structures, handling 800 to a thousand passengers an hour.

The airport shutdown has triggered a drop in tourist arrivals and forced thousands of passengers to be rerouted to other airports in and around Belgium.

For CRI, this is Luo Wen.