The third and final day of Belgium’s nationwide strike on 26 November paralysed Brussels and Charleroi airports, grounding most departures and 110 of 203 scheduled arrivals. Although Austrian Airlines does not fly nonstop to Brussels, hundreds of Austrian executives were booked to reach EU institution meetings via Star Alliance partner Lufthansa or low-cost carriers. Travel managers scrambled to re-protect passengers on flights through Frankfurt, Zürich and Amsterdam, adding up to three hours to end-to-end journeys.
The walk-out, arranged by Belgium’s main unions to protest pension and labour-market reforms, coincided with high-season corporate board calendars, highlighting the fragility of intra-EU mobility. Companies with short-haul sustainability mandates turned to rail combos such as Cologne ICE connections, but seat inventory sold out within hours.
![Belgian General Strike Cancels 110 Brussels Arrivals, Forcing Austrian Travellers to Re-Route]()
Under EU261 rules, travellers on cancelled flights may be entitled to compensation unless the strike is deemed an “extraordinary circumstance.” Legal opinion is split because ground-handling and airport-security staff are not direct employees of airlines, so Austrian corporates are filing claims to preserve rights.
Practical advice for mobility teams: verify that Schengen single-entry visa holders have multiple-entry rights if they re-enter via a different airport; update risk-alerts in traveller-tracking tools; and brief employees on potential security bottlenecks at alternate hubs handling diverted traffic.
The walk-out, arranged by Belgium’s main unions to protest pension and labour-market reforms, coincided with high-season corporate board calendars, highlighting the fragility of intra-EU mobility. Companies with short-haul sustainability mandates turned to rail combos such as Cologne ICE connections, but seat inventory sold out within hours.
Under EU261 rules, travellers on cancelled flights may be entitled to compensation unless the strike is deemed an “extraordinary circumstance.” Legal opinion is split because ground-handling and airport-security staff are not direct employees of airlines, so Austrian corporates are filing claims to preserve rights.
Practical advice for mobility teams: verify that Schengen single-entry visa holders have multiple-entry rights if they re-enter via a different airport; update risk-alerts in traveller-tracking tools; and brief employees on potential security bottlenecks at alternate hubs handling diverted traffic.
