He was addressing the parliamentary investigation commission for the terrorist attacks.

In six years, 6.2 euros of airport tax per individual to cover security has yielded 366 million euros to which another 80 million euros have been added. These sums cover as much operational costs, including staff, as investments. Mr Feist stressed, “this is a significant amount of money, showing the extent to which security matters to us.”

The Zaventem airport was one of the two places hit on March 22nd by terrorists. It had never previously been the subject of a particular threat.

After the Paris attacks in November 2015, and certainly when Brussels was put on level 4 alert, the CEO had contacted the authorities several times, in particular the Minister for Transport.

The CEO explained, “The authorities often responded saying that there was no specific terrorist threat. In the seven years that I have been in post, I have never been briefed as to any specific threat.”