A strike by security forces on Monday led to the precautionary cancellation of all flights from Brussels Zaventem Airport, the busiest in Belgium, amid national mobilization by unions for wages.
“All departing flights will be canceled on June 20 (…) We urge all passengers not to come to the airport on Monday,” the airport operator wrote on its Twitter account of the Brussels Airport company.
Apart from a few connecting flights, a total of 232 flights were canceled, which, according to an airport spokeswoman, affected around 30,000 departing passengers.
Incoming commercial flights are also affected, with one in four flights operating. On the other hand, all freight traffic is maintained.
“I haven’t seen my wife for 4 months because I’ve been working. I was supposed to meet her in Istanbul this morning. Maybe I’ll spend a few days in a hotel,” Oleksandr Zayikin, a Ukrainian working for AFP, told AFP. of the Merchant Navy, in the airport hall, where a few hundred passengers were looking for solutions to find accommodation or a new flight.
232 flights affected
Passengers are urged to contact their airline to reschedule their travel. Part of the passenger traffic of the German tour operator TUI departing from Brussels Airport was diverted to other Belgian regional airports.
The three major union federations in Belgium – FGTB (socialist), CSC (Christian) and CGSLB (liberal) – called for a national day of action on Monday to defend wages and purchasing power.
In this context, part of the staff of the security company G4S, operating in Zaventem, decided to go on strike, which had already led to the Brussels airport advising against departures from this airport last Wednesday, June 20th.
A large trade union demonstration was planned for the late morning in the center of Brussels, at which the organizers said up to 70,000 people were expected.
Other protest movements by aviation workers, notably at Ryanair and Brussels Airlines, were expected to significantly disrupt this sector in Belgium for several days from Thursday.