Brussels Zaventem Airport

I travel regularly to manuy airports and I have found Brussels Zaventem the easiest to navigate to and around. It is comfortable to wait in. Departure lounge seating is very relaxing with built in charging points, it is very clean and staff are very helpful and friendly.

Used Brussels Airport for a long transit from Vilnius to Prague in the B zone of the terminal. Plenty of room in this airport and very good food and beverage options. The airport has plenty of power points for charging your phones / electronic devices, as well as travelators to connect the extremely long B-T terminal area. The signs in the terminal were good and clear, while queuing for my connecting flight did not take too long. Good place for catching a quick nap is the main shopping area - there are plenty of comfortable couches. There is now unlimited WiFi at the airport. In general I enjoyed the transit at this airport, and I look forward to connecting or departing from Brussels in future.

✅ Verified Review | I transited from Brussels airport from Rome to Entebbe in a Brussels Airlines flight. Being an EU citizen resident in Uganda decided to process my receipt for Tax refund in Brussels, according to the rules, the last departure place before leaving EU. Unfortunately, at the time of my arrival from Rome the custom office at gate 64 (for transit passengers) was closed. After about 1 hour waiting an officer finally arrived. I showed the good I was exporting, all the required receipts and requested the stamp to certify that I was exporting the goods. The custom officer requested my Schengen visa (on an EU passport) stating that I was not entitled to tax refund unless I have a Schengen visa in my passport. I tried to explain that EU citizen are not supposed to apply for a Schengen visa when travelling to Europe. I also showed evidence of my residence abroad (working permit and visa from Uganda, ID card from Ugandan Min. of Foreign Affairs, Ugandan driving licence). With no result. Finally I tried to explain that the role of custom officer was just to certify I was exporting the good, while my tax exemption status will be verified by my country tax agency. Hence, refusing me the stamp when there was evidence I was exporting the purchased goods was an abuse of position. The officer still categorical requested me to to show my Schengen visa on my EU passport. By that time my flight was almost closing and I had to leave without stamp. In conclusion, while I have processed tax refund without problems in other European airports (Shiphol, Fiumicino), in Brussels I was deprived of my right to claim a tax refund.

Terrible experience at Brussels Zaventum airport. We all expect a heightened level of security and therefore a longer process but on Fri 29 April it was appalling. The airport management have failed to sufficiently staff and sign the airport to meet the additional security needs at busy times. On April 29th it was chaos and took 3 hours to get through to the gate. If you can go via another airport - for now it would be best to do so.

Allow for an extra hour to get through the passport check and security. Completely inadequately staffed, super slow and not empathetic to your need for haste. This airport is massive and so you need an hour to walk from one end to the other plus 45 minutes for all the bureaucratic and security check. I shall avoid ever stopping there.

Old congested airport, with poor passport control facilities. Takes more than an hour to clear passport control, if one is lucky. Security is also time consuming. To change from International to Domestic, one has to go down 3 stories, cross a long tunnel and again go up 3 stories. Has no character.

We were travelling with a person requiring assistance which we had booked with our airline beforehand. I have to say how not only my family member requiring assistance but the rest of the family were treated was fantastic. We were immediately greeted upon getting of the plane by a friendly lady who spoke fantastic English and proceeded to take us through immigration (staff were very friendly and efficient). Departing, the staff throughout the terminal, including security, check-in and all shops were very friendly and courteous and immediately offering to speak to you in French, Dutch, German or English. They are a credit to the airport and leave a good first and lasting impression of Belgium. Some parts of the airport could do with a but if care but nothing was terrible. There's excellent transport to the rest of Belgium via train directly from the airport.

Arrived from Barcelona with transit in Brussels for my flight to Tokyo. Terminal A where I arrived from Barcelona was very nice and modern. A good selection of shops and resturants. Unfortunately my flight was departing from Terminal B. Usually when I transit from a Schengen flight to a non-Schengen flight I don't have to go through security in the transit airport (since I already did that in Barcelona), the only requirement is immigration, but in Brussels you have to do both. So first a 20 minute wait to show passport and then a 40 minute wait to go through security. So after 1 hour I finally arrived to Terminal B. The terminal was like a time travel many years back in time. There is no seats in the gate area. There is a small dutyfree shop and a very limited number of other shops. If you are planning to transit to a long haul flight I do not recommend Brussels. 40 minutes wait to get through security is my record, I don't want to do that again!

Since Brussels airport did some renovation works in the A-terminal, the travel experience has really improved. Great views on the tarmac and the airplanes, nice shops and decent food. We checked in online but had to drop off a bag, that went really smooth. Convenient airport.

Brussels Zaventem Airport is in two distinct sections. Arrival in the new Schengen area is modern and well conceived. Departing 3 days later in the old section of the airport was like a time-travel back to the 80's. Old, dark and completely lacking in charm.