Zaventem: Combi aircrafts redirected to Zürich

The Zaventem airport is again partially active; however, since the attack, many planes have been redirected to other places. "This has affected passenger flights, but also many others transporting perishables," explains Tom Gemels, of Fresh Express. "Brussels Airlines has many flights from West Africa that combine passengers and cargo. Many of them have landed in Zürich. This situation results in long delays for some of our customers. For planes with 100% cargo, everything remains the same. These can simply land at Zaventem."

Delays don't cost money, but time

Fresh Express provides air transportation for vegetables, fruit, exotics, flowers and fish, and has offices in Brussels and Liege. "Some of the products we carry are arriving later than usual. Everything is transported from Zürich by truck back to Belgium. This doesn't entail any additional costs for us, as these are covered by Brussels Airlines. The only major drawback is that a part of the products arrive later to our customers. This is the case for beans, mangoes and other exotics. The delays don't cost us money, but time."

Until the end of June

When it comes to passenger flights, Brussels cannot do so much for now and the situation is expected to continue like this until late June. "The ones devoted 100% to cargo have no issues and this should not change. We hope that the airport will give priority to combi aircrafts with both cargo and passengers. Then we will face little trouble. But it is not our decision to make; we have no influence on that."

For more information:
Fresh Express Brussels
Tom Gemels
704 Swissport Building
1830 Machelen-Brucargo
Belgium
info@fresh-express.eu
www.fresh-express.eu