Spanish expatriates heading home via Brussels faced an unexpected detour after airport authorities confirmed that 93 arriving flights were rerouted to neighbouring Netherlands and Germany because there were not enough ground-handling crews on duty in Zaventem.
Euro Weekly News quoted Belgian aviation officials saying Maastricht Aachen and Düsseldorf International had activated contingency plans to accept the overflow, bussing passengers back to Belgium once they cleared Schengen immigration. Travellers holding non-EU passports reported additional checks as police verified that their 90/180-day Schengen stay clocks were not triggered by the brief cross-border diversion—a reminder of the complex interaction between Schengen internal-border flexibility and immigration compliance.
![Euro Weekly: strike diverts 93 flights from Brussels to Maastricht and Düsseldorf]()
Cargo operations were also hit: DHL temporarily diverted two express freighters to Leipzig, potentially delaying time-critical life-science shipments. Employers should note that Belgian customs has advised importers to expect processing backlogs through the weekend.
The incident highlights the scarcity of slack in Europe’s hub-and-spoke system; a one-day labour action in Belgium can ripple across at least three jurisdictions, stressing the importance of real-time mobility tracking tools.
Euro Weekly News quoted Belgian aviation officials saying Maastricht Aachen and Düsseldorf International had activated contingency plans to accept the overflow, bussing passengers back to Belgium once they cleared Schengen immigration. Travellers holding non-EU passports reported additional checks as police verified that their 90/180-day Schengen stay clocks were not triggered by the brief cross-border diversion—a reminder of the complex interaction between Schengen internal-border flexibility and immigration compliance.
Cargo operations were also hit: DHL temporarily diverted two express freighters to Leipzig, potentially delaying time-critical life-science shipments. Employers should note that Belgian customs has advised importers to expect processing backlogs through the weekend.
The incident highlights the scarcity of slack in Europe’s hub-and-spoke system; a one-day labour action in Belgium can ripple across at least three jurisdictions, stressing the importance of real-time mobility tracking tools.
