The European Commission announced on 3 November a €5 million emergency package for Jamaica, Cuba and Haiti after Category-5 Hurricane Melissa left at least 60 dead. Crisis-Management Commissioner Hadja Lahbib confirmed that Belgium, through the EU Civil Protection Mechanism, will supply two A400M transport aircraft and a 45-person Rapid Response team specialising in water-purification units.
Under the mechanism Brussels Airport’s military apron becomes one of three European staging points for relief cargo, alongside Zaragoza and Ostend. Defence sources say the first flight could depart within 36 hours, carrying modular field shelters and satellite-based broadband terminals for disrupted telecom networks.
![EU unlocks €5 million in hurricane aid; Belgian air bridge teams put on standby]()
While primarily humanitarian, the operation illustrates Belgium’s growing role as Europe’s logistics hub: since 2022 the country has led 14 of 37 EU air-bridge missions, leveraging its central geography and multimodal links. Freight forwarders such as DSV and Kuehne + Nagel report a surge of charter enquiries, and insurers remind corporate shippers that emergency-aid flights receive priority slots during ATC restrictions.
For global-mobility teams the activation of Belgian personnel underscores the need for robust evacuation and medevac provisions when stationing staff in hurricane-prone regions; several Brussels-based NGOs have already triggered family-support hotlines for expatriates in Port-au-Prince.
Under the mechanism Brussels Airport’s military apron becomes one of three European staging points for relief cargo, alongside Zaragoza and Ostend. Defence sources say the first flight could depart within 36 hours, carrying modular field shelters and satellite-based broadband terminals for disrupted telecom networks.
While primarily humanitarian, the operation illustrates Belgium’s growing role as Europe’s logistics hub: since 2022 the country has led 14 of 37 EU air-bridge missions, leveraging its central geography and multimodal links. Freight forwarders such as DSV and Kuehne + Nagel report a surge of charter enquiries, and insurers remind corporate shippers that emergency-aid flights receive priority slots during ATC restrictions.
For global-mobility teams the activation of Belgian personnel underscores the need for robust evacuation and medevac provisions when stationing staff in hurricane-prone regions; several Brussels-based NGOs have already triggered family-support hotlines for expatriates in Port-au-Prince.
