Belgium woke up on 24 November to the first day of a co-ordinated 72-hour strike that is paralysing large swathes of the country’s transport network and threatening to spill over into the wider Benelux region. The united public-service unions are protesting pension reforms and planned budget cuts, and their action is being felt most acutely by travellers and internationally mobile staff who rely on Belgium’s dense rail links and hub airports.
Brussels Airport has pre-emptively cancelled all 206 scheduled departures for Wednesday, 26 November, after security-screening and baggage-handling staff confirmed they would walk out. Charleroi, Belgium’s second-busiest airport, has announced that neither departures nor arrivals will operate that day. Airlines have begun emailing re-booking offers, but many long-haul passengers will still need overnight accommodation because the strike coincides with peak trans-Atlantic arrival banks. Ground transport to the airports is also badly hit: the SNCB rail operator says only 20 % of normal domestic and cross-border services are running, while Brussels’ STIB/MIVB metro and bus frequencies have been cut to a fraction of their usual levels.
![Belgium’s Three-Day National Strike Grounds Flights and Slashes Train Services]()
International business travellers face knock-on effects beyond Belgian borders. Eurostar has cancelled roughly half its high-speed services between Brussels and Paris and a quarter of its Amsterdam-London trains, raising the risk of missed onward flights at Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Schiphol. Road freight into Belgium is also sluggish as pickets around the Port of Antwerp worsen motorway congestion. Companies with posted workers are activating remote-work contingencies and advising staff to carry digital copies of boarding passes and resident permits in case they become stranded.
Although Belgium is no stranger to industrial action, the scale and duration of this strike are unusual. According to travel-data firm AirHelp, five national strikes earlier this year each disrupted between 30,000 and 50,000 passengers; this week’s walk-out is on track to eclipse those figures because both airports and rail are simultaneously affected. The government has urged the social partners to resume dialogue, but union leaders say further stoppages cannot be ruled out in the run-up to the Christmas peak.
For mobility managers the practical advice is clear: avoid booking departures on 26 November altogether, build in at least 24-hour buffers for critical travel and monitor airline re-accommodation options closely. Employees already in Belgium should expect limited public transport until Thursday morning and keep identity documents handy, as police have set up ad-hoc roadblocks near the airport perimeter.
Brussels Airport has pre-emptively cancelled all 206 scheduled departures for Wednesday, 26 November, after security-screening and baggage-handling staff confirmed they would walk out. Charleroi, Belgium’s second-busiest airport, has announced that neither departures nor arrivals will operate that day. Airlines have begun emailing re-booking offers, but many long-haul passengers will still need overnight accommodation because the strike coincides with peak trans-Atlantic arrival banks. Ground transport to the airports is also badly hit: the SNCB rail operator says only 20 % of normal domestic and cross-border services are running, while Brussels’ STIB/MIVB metro and bus frequencies have been cut to a fraction of their usual levels.
International business travellers face knock-on effects beyond Belgian borders. Eurostar has cancelled roughly half its high-speed services between Brussels and Paris and a quarter of its Amsterdam-London trains, raising the risk of missed onward flights at Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Schiphol. Road freight into Belgium is also sluggish as pickets around the Port of Antwerp worsen motorway congestion. Companies with posted workers are activating remote-work contingencies and advising staff to carry digital copies of boarding passes and resident permits in case they become stranded.
Although Belgium is no stranger to industrial action, the scale and duration of this strike are unusual. According to travel-data firm AirHelp, five national strikes earlier this year each disrupted between 30,000 and 50,000 passengers; this week’s walk-out is on track to eclipse those figures because both airports and rail are simultaneously affected. The government has urged the social partners to resume dialogue, but union leaders say further stoppages cannot be ruled out in the run-up to the Christmas peak.
For mobility managers the practical advice is clear: avoid booking departures on 26 November altogether, build in at least 24-hour buffers for critical travel and monitor airline re-accommodation options closely. Employees already in Belgium should expect limited public transport until Thursday morning and keep identity documents handy, as police have set up ad-hoc roadblocks near the airport perimeter.
