In the early hours of 7 November, Eurocontrol’s Network Manager Operations Centre (NMOC) in Brussels activated a ‘zero-rate’ flow measure, effectively banning all arrivals and departures at Belgium’s three principal civil airports—Brussels, Liège and Charleroi—until 01:00 UTC. The unprecedented move followed persistent drone sightings that had already forced intermittent closures throughout the week.
Airlines scrambled to reroute inbound flights to Maastricht, Eindhoven, Ostend-Bruges and Cologne. FedEx and Cainiao, both major cargo operators at Liège, warned customers of 24-to-48-hour delivery delays on e-commerce parcels destined for EU distribution centres. Brussels Airlines diverted overnight A330s returning from Kinshasa and New York to Frankfurt, bussing passengers back to Belgium the next morning.
![Eurocontrol issues ‘zero-rate’ air-traffic restriction over Belgium amid drone threat]()
Eurocontrol rarely applies a blanket zero-rate; the last comparable action in Western Europe was during the 2010 Eyjafjallajökull ash-cloud crisis. Aviation insurers say repeated disruptions could push up Belgium’s war-risk premiums unless counter-measures take effect quickly.
The incident underscores the growing interplay between aviation security and corporate mobility planning. Travel managers are urged to register Belgian-based staff itineraries on the Foreign Affairs ministry’s TravellersOnline portal and consider alternative routings, including high-speed rail to Paris or Amsterdam during high-alert periods.
Eurocontrol will review Belgium’s air-traffic flow management status daily and publish special operational notices (SNOWTAM) as detection capabilities improve. In the meantime, carriers operating critical supply-chain flights have called for an EU-level protocol to harmonise counter-drone responses across member states.
Airlines scrambled to reroute inbound flights to Maastricht, Eindhoven, Ostend-Bruges and Cologne. FedEx and Cainiao, both major cargo operators at Liège, warned customers of 24-to-48-hour delivery delays on e-commerce parcels destined for EU distribution centres. Brussels Airlines diverted overnight A330s returning from Kinshasa and New York to Frankfurt, bussing passengers back to Belgium the next morning.
Eurocontrol rarely applies a blanket zero-rate; the last comparable action in Western Europe was during the 2010 Eyjafjallajökull ash-cloud crisis. Aviation insurers say repeated disruptions could push up Belgium’s war-risk premiums unless counter-measures take effect quickly.
The incident underscores the growing interplay between aviation security and corporate mobility planning. Travel managers are urged to register Belgian-based staff itineraries on the Foreign Affairs ministry’s TravellersOnline portal and consider alternative routings, including high-speed rail to Paris or Amsterdam during high-alert periods.
Eurocontrol will review Belgium’s air-traffic flow management status daily and publish special operational notices (SNOWTAM) as detection capabilities improve. In the meantime, carriers operating critical supply-chain flights have called for an EU-level protocol to harmonise counter-drone responses across member states.
