Belgium Strikes November 24 To 26 Hit Flights And Trains

Published on Nov 22, 2025, 9:53 am CST

10 min read

Key points

Three day national strike in Belgium from November 24 to 26 will hit rail, airports, and public transport nationwide
Brussels Airport and Brussels South Charleroi will cancel all departures on November 26 and some arriving flights may also be cut
SNCB will run a skeleton timetable from late November 23 to November 26 while Eurostar cancels many Brussels Paris and Amsterdam London trains
United, Air Canada, and Lufthansa Group have issued Brussels waivers for November 25 and 26 itineraries
Nonessential trips should avoid November 24 to 26 if possible and critical journeys need extra buffers or rerouting via Paris, Amsterdam, or Frankfurt

Impact

Where Impacts Are Most Likely: Expect the heaviest disruption on November 26 at Brussels Airport, Brussels South Charleroi, and on rail links into Brussels, Antwerp, and Liege
Best Times To Travel: If dates cannot move, consider traveling on November 23 or November 27 or using early departures on November 25 before full strike effects build
Connections And Misconnect Risk: Avoid tight same day rail to air connections through Brussels Midi and Brussels Airport and avoid separate tickets during the strike window
Onward Travel And Changes: Use airline and rail waivers now to reroute via Paris, Amsterdam, or Frankfurt and to move trips outside the November 24 to 26 period wherever possible
What Travelers Should Do Now: Check booking tools for waiver eligibility, proactively rebook Brussels itineraries, and secure backup ground transport or extra hotel nights if travel must proceed

Belgium strikes November 24 26 are set to thin rail services, cancel large numbers of Brussels flights, and disrupt metro and bus networks for three full days. The action will hit passengers using Brussels Airport, Brussels South Charleroi, and main line and high speed trains through Brussels Midi, including Eurostar links between London, Paris, Amsterdam, and Cologne. Travelers with flexible plans should move trips away from the strike window where they can, while those who must travel need to add overnight buffers, backup routings, and generous transfer time.

In practical terms, the three day national strike from November 24 to 26 will roll through different sectors on each day, but the combined effect will sharply reduce trains, flights, and local transport across Belgium and raise the risk of missed connections throughout northwest Europe.

Strike Structure And Day By Day Impacts

Belgium's three major union federations are coordinating the stoppages to protest government economic and labor reforms, including pension changes and what unions describe as erosion of social protections. Rail workers walk out first, followed by a broad public service strike, then a wider private sector shutdown that pulls in airport security and ground handling staff.

The rail impact starts before the official dates. From around 22:00 on Sunday November 23, national operator SNCB, also known as NMBS, will move to a limited strike timetable through the end of Wednesday November 26, with most domestic trains canceled and only an alternative skeleton service published about 24 hours ahead. International planners at B Europe warn that only a fraction of normal services will run and that passengers should expect packed trains on surviving InterCity and high speed routes.

On Monday November 24, the focus is on the rail network. Travelers trying to move between Brussels, Antwerp, Ghent, Bruges, and Liege by train should expect long gaps between services or full cancellations, with only limited trains prioritized for essential commuters and cross border traffic. Anyone relying on a same day rail connection into Brussels Midi to reach a flight, cruise, or long haul train that evening will be running a higher than usual risk of misconnection.

Tuesday November 25 broadens the action to public services. Advisories from the United Kingdom, Bulgaria, and the United States warn that local public transport, some schools, and parts of the health sector will be disrupted, with knock on effects for airport access in Brussels and other major cities. Brussels metro and tram operator STIB, along with regional bus companies, expect significant interruptions, which could leave travelers without reliable links from city centers to rail stations and airports even where flights and some trains still operate.

Wednesday November 26 brings the widest disruption. Brussels Airport has confirmed that all departing passenger flights on November 26 are canceled because security and handling staff will join the national strike, and that some arriving flights may also be cut, with public transport to the airport likely affected. Brussels South Charleroi Airport has gone further, announcing that it cannot guarantee any flights and later confirming that all departures and arrivals on November 26 will be canceled. Together, those steps effectively ground commercial air departures from Belgium that day, leaving travelers to route via nearby hubs in France, the Netherlands, or Germany instead.

Eurostar and other international operators are already trimming schedules. Eurostar says about half of its Brussels Paris trains will not run during the three day strike, and roughly one quarter of Amsterdam London services that rely on Belgian infrastructure will be canceled or retimed. That raises the odds that a London Brussels Cologne or London Brussels Luxembourg itinerary will break at Brussels Midi, with passengers forced to wait hours for a replacement domestic or German bound train.

Foreign ministries also warn that a large demonstration is planned in central Brussels on November 26, making road closures and rolling traffic disruption likely around key government districts. That adds another layer of risk for travelers trying to move between hotels, rail stations, and airports by taxi, coach, or rideshare.

Background: Why Belgium Is Striking

The three day action is the latest in a series of national strikes by Belgian unions ACV CSC, FGTB ABVV, and CGSLB ACLVB, which argue that recent government measures on pensions, wages, and labor flexibility will deepen inequality and weaken social security. Union statements frame the November 24 to 26 strikes as a coordinated show of force, starting with rail workers, then adding public services such as local transport, and finally pulling in private sector staff across logistics, retail, and aviation.

For travelers, the politics matter mainly because they explain why the disruption is system wide rather than limited to one company. This is not a single airline or single metro operator dispute. Instead, it is a national labor push that touches almost every mode on overlapping days, which is why planning around the entire period rather than just one twenty four hour window is safer.

Impact On Flights And Airports

The most visible impact for air travelers is the shutdown of departing flights at Brussels Airport and Brussels South Charleroi on Wednesday November 26. Airport and aviation briefings make clear that with security checkpoints and much of the ground handling workforce off duty, operating a normal departures schedule would not be safe or practical.

On November 24 and 25, airport operations are expected to continue, but the surrounding rail and public transport strikes will make it harder to reach the terminals. Trains that usually connect Brussels Midi to Brussels Airport may run far less frequently or not at all, and local buses and trams that feed the airports could be cut or crowded. That means travelers may arrive late for flights even where the flights themselves remain scheduled.

Carriers are already adjusting. Brussels Airlines has warned that it will cancel the vast majority of its schedule on November 26, with particular impact on European short haul and North African routes that depend on tight aircraft rotations through Brussels. Aviation risk briefings flag routes linking Belgium with Morocco and other leisure and migrant travel markets as especially exposed to cancellations on the strike days, so travelers on Brussels Casablanca, Brussels Marrakech, or similar legs should watch for retimings or rerouting via other hubs.

Long haul travelers also face disruption. Star Alliance carriers, including United Airlines, Air Canada, and Lufthansa Group airlines, have issued travel waivers for trips to, from, or through Brussels on November 25 and 26, allowing many passengers to change dates or reroute without paying change fees or fare differences so long as they stay in the same cabin and city pair window. That is a strong signal that the alliance expects material disruption on those days and wants customers to move voluntarily before the worst of the cancellations hit.

For those who keep Brussels itineraries, the safest pairings will be earlier flights on November 25 and later flights on November 27. Anyone booked to depart on November 26 should now assume that the flight will cancel and either use waiver options or shift origin and destination to nearby hubs such as Paris Charles de Gaulle, Amsterdam Schiphol, or Frankfurt.

Impact On Rail, Metro, And Eurostar Connections

On the rails, the combination of a skeleton SNCB timetable and Eurostar cancellations will reshape how travelers move across Belgium and beyond. The national operator says its alternative plan will prioritize a small number of key routes based on staff availability, but that most domestic services will not run and that final timetables will only be published the day before.

Eurostar's confirmation that around half of Brussels Paris trains and a quarter of Amsterdam London services will be canceled during the strike means far fewer high speed options into and out of Brussels Midi. A London Brussels Bruges trip that would normally be a simple Eurostar plus short InterCity hop may instead require a much earlier departure, a long wait for one of the few surviving domestic trains, or a reroute that skips Brussels entirely in favor of Paris Lille or Amsterdam connections.

Brussels metro, tram, and bus networks, along with regional operators such as De Lijn and TEC, are expected to face widespread disruption on November 25 and 26. Foreign travel advisories say travelers should expect reduced frequencies, partial network closures, and crowding on any lines that do operate, especially near key transfer points like Brussels Midi, Brussels Central, and major bus interchanges. That will feed through to longer and less predictable transfer times between city hotels, rail stations, and airports.

Rerouting, Rights, And Whether To Shift Dates

For travelers who have not yet locked in tickets, the cleanest solution is to avoid the strike window entirely. Booking flights and long distance trains on November 23 or November 27 greatly reduces the risk of cancellation and makes it easier to find functioning local transport to and from stations and airports.

Where dates are fixed or partly fixed, rerouting can still help. Many intercontinental passengers can route via Paris, Amsterdam, or Frankfurt instead of Brussels, then use non strike bound rail or coach links for the final leg into Belgium before or after the main strike days. Others may choose to overnight near their departure airport to cut the risk of same day rail disruptions causing missed flights.

Airline and rail waivers are the most powerful tools for those already ticketed. United, Air Canada, and Lufthansa Group policies around November 25 and 26 generally allow one free change for itineraries touching Brussels, often with fare differences waived within a specific date band and route family. Travelers who act early have the best chance of finding alternate seats on surrounding days or on nearby hubs before those options fill.

Anyone who keeps same day rail to air or air to rail connections should plan for longer buffers than normal. At minimum, pairing a Eurostar arrival into Brussels Midi with a Brussels Airport departure during the strike window should include enough time to absorb both a reduced rail timetable and a slower than usual airport access leg, ideally with protected tickets so that one missed connection does not cascade into out of pocket costs. For complex itineraries or those using separate tickets, our evergreen guidance in the Europe Airport Strikes compensation and re routing guide remains a good baseline for using EU 261 rights, travel insurance, and proactive rerouting to reduce the pain.

Finally, travelers who want a more detailed map of how this strike interacts with specific departures at Brussels Airport can consult our earlier airport focused alert on the November strike and Brussels departures, as well as our coverage of Eurostar's wider winter cancellations around London routes, which explain how engineering works and other constraints layer on top of the Belgian action.