Brussels Airport reopened on Sunday with three "symbolic" flights and strict additional checks for passengers, marking a new high-security era for air travel in Belgium after attacks by Islamic State suicide bombers.
The key travel hub has been closed since two men blew themselves up in the departure hall on March 22 in coordinated blasts that also struck a metro station in the Belgian capital, killing a total of 32 people.
A Brussels Airlines plane bound for the Portuguese city of Faro became the first to take off from the reopened airport. Tearful employees and government officials marked the 1140 GMT departure with a minute's silence and a round of applause, AFP reporters saw, while on the tarmac fire engines and police vehicles formed a guard of honour.
"We're back," Brussels Airport chief executive Arnaud Feist said after watching the plane take to the skies. Two further flights, to Athens and Turin in Italy, were also scheduled for departure in what Feist called a "symbolic" reopening of the airport.
The same three planes were to return to Brussels with passengers later today. The restart of the airport has been hailed as the beginning of a return to normal for a traumatised country, but the shadow of the attacks loomed large.