Brussels Airport closure costs pass $7m

Belgium's Brussels Airways, 45 per cent owned by Deutsche Lufthansa, is running up five million euros ($A7.42 million) in daily costs from the closure of its Brussels hub after last week's attacks.

Expenses from re-routing passenger traffic and from lost revenues are weighing on the bottom line, a Brussels Airways spokesman said on Tuesday.

Belgium's regional airports in Antwerp and Liege offer only limited short-haul capacity as an alternative, he said.

Brussels airport began trying out on Tuesday a make-shift check-in area that could allow a limited restart of passenger flights in coming days to end the airport's shutdown after suicide bombers struck Belgium's capital a week ago.

Brussels Airlines last week restarted some commercial flights from Belgium via Liege and Antwerp.

Separately, Lufthansa said it cancelled all flights to Brussels from March 31 until April 3, instead offering a shuttle bus service between Brussels and Frankfurt airport and some flights from Liege.

Between March 22 and April 3, 265 Lufthansa flights will have been cancelled, it said.