Belgium National Strike November 26 Grounds Brussels Flights

Published on Nov 27, 2025, 12:22 pm CST

7 min read

Key points

Belgium national strike flights on November 26, 2025 canceled all departures at Brussels Airport and 110 of 203 arrivals
Brussels South Charleroi halted operations and Belgian rail and city transport ran at sharply reduced levels, raising misconnect risk
Antwerp Bruges port traffic slowed by strike related pilotage and control actions, with dozens of vessels waiting and freight rerouted
Airlines are rerouting passengers via Amsterdam, Paris, Frankfurt and London, where remaining capacity is already tight
Travelers touching Belgium through the weekend should allow long buffers, avoid separate tickets and confirm airport and rail access before departure

Impact

Where Impacts Are Most Likely: Expect the heaviest disruption at Brussels Airport, Brussels South Charleroi, SNCB rail corridors and Antwerp Bruges port through at least the next few days
Best Times To Travel: Travel outside the November 24 to 26 strike window and favor early services on surrounding days, avoiding peak commuting hours around Brussels
Connections And Misconnect Risk: Avoid tight same day rail to air or Eurostar links via Brussels and leave three or more hours where itineraries still touch Belgium
Onward Travel And Changes: Use airline and rail waivers to reroute via Amsterdam, Paris or Frankfurt, shift dates where possible and prebook backup road transport when public transit is thin
What Travelers Should Do Now: If you have upcoming Belgium segments, check whether flights were rerouted, confirm train and metro status, and rebuild itineraries with generous slack

Some of the links and widgets on this page are affiliates, which means we may earn a commission if you use them, at no extra cost to you.

Belgium national strike flights are still reshaping routes through Brussels Airport (BRU) after November 26, 2025, when the country's busiest hub canceled all departures and 110 of 203 planned arrivals on the final day of a three day walkout. Brussels South Charleroi Airport (CRL) also reported major staff shortages and told passengers it could not guarantee landings or departures. The same industrial action slowed trains, buses, and schools across Belgium, while unions and port authorities warned that delayed vessels and diverted cargo at Antwerp Bruges would keep the broader transport system under pressure for days, even as strikes formally end.

In practical terms, the Belgium national strike flights shutdown on November 26 forced airlines, rail operators, and logistics firms to reroute passengers and freight via neighboring hubs, while travelers whose trips still touch Belgium over the next several days now need extra buffer time and more flexible plans.

How Many Flights Were Canceled And Where They Went Instead

Brussels Airport confirmed ahead of the final strike day that it would cancel every scheduled departing flight on Wednesday, November 26, because security screening and ground handling staff were joining the nationwide walkout. As the strike escalated, the airport added that 110 of 203 incoming flights would also be scrubbed, leaving just 93 arrivals to operate and putting the onus on airlines to decide which services to reroute or cancel. Parallel reporting from business and international outlets notes that carriers including Brussels Airlines, Ryanair, Aer Lingus, and British Airways pulled links from Dublin, London, Manchester, and Edinburgh to Brussels and Charleroi, in some cases offering rebooking or refunds rather than same day alternatives.

Belgium's second major gateway, Brussels South Charleroi, went even further by effectively suspending its commercial schedule on November 26, telling travelers that staffing levels were too low to guarantee safe departures or arrivals. This particularly affected low cost routes, since Charleroi is a key base for Ryanair and other budget airlines that feed connections throughout Europe. For inbound traffic, industry advisories say that long haul and transfer passengers whose flights remained on the schedule were often reprotected via Amsterdam Schiphol, Paris Charles de Gaulle, Frankfurt, or London Heathrow, where remaining seats were already tight and arrival waves had to be rebalanced to absorb Belgium's lost capacity.

Several thousand travelers who had planned direct links to Belgium for business, EU meetings, or winter city breaks instead found their itineraries reworked as multi leg journeys with long gaps between sectors, raising the risk of misconnects as the wider European network absorbed the shock.

Three Days Of Austerity Protests And Thinned Public Transport

The airport shutdown was the most visible aviation piece of a broader three day national strike, staged by Belgium's main unions in protest at pension and labor market reforms tied to Prime Minister Bart De Wever's 2026 budget and a multi year deficit reduction plan. From November 24 through 26, trade unions called out staff in waves across public transport, schools, and parts of the private sector, after months of warning that the government's austerity program would raise the retirement age and cut social protections too aggressively.

National rail operator SNCB estimated that it would run only one in two or one in three trains on many routes during the strike period, with some lines stripped back to skeleton service and adapted timetables published only shortly before each day's operations. Local transit agencies in Brussels and other cities reported heavily reduced metro, tram, and bus coverage, particularly on the final day that unions and local media had flagged as the most disruptive.

Cross border services also felt the strain. Eurostar and other international operators cut or consolidated some trains between Brussels, Paris, London, and Amsterdam, warning that even where cross Channel services ran broadly as scheduled, disrupted Belgian rail and metro links would increase the odds of missed connections to and from Brussels Midi and the airport.

Why Port And Freight Problems Will Outlast The Strike Window

For travelers focused on flights and trains, it is easy to miss the maritime side of the story, but the same national strike also hit Antwerp Bruges, one of Europe's most important freight gateways. The port authority's crisis updates describe inbound and outbound vessel traffic moving at reduced capacity, with several dozen ships waiting to berth or depart as of November 27, and restricted pilotage and traffic control during parts of the November 24 to 26 period.

Shipping lines and freight advisories add that union actions at pilot boat operators and traffic centers effectively halted or sharply slowed movements along the Scheldt to Antwerp and Ghent during parts of the strike, creating a queue that will take time to unwind. Logistics risk bulletins say this will affect not just containerized goods but also fuel and specialty cargo, with some life science and high value shipments diverted into alternative ports such as Liège, Luxembourg, or Rotterdam, then trucked into Belgium.

For travelers, this matters less in terms of immediate personal movement and more in terms of knock on effects for cruise calls, ferry linked itineraries, and just in time supply chains that feed airports, hotels, and city services across the Benelux region. Port congestion can translate into delayed cruise provisioning, altered itineraries, or shortages that make local travel less predictable for several days after a strike formally ends.

How This Update Differs From Earlier Belgium Strike Guidance

Adept Traveler's earlier coverage mapped the structure of the November 24 to 26 strikes, including advance warnings that Brussels Airport would cancel all departures on November 26, that Charleroi would suspend traffic that day, and that SNCB and Eurostar would run heavily reduced service with elevated misconnect risk. This update adds confirmed figures for inbound flight cancellations, clearer evidence that all outbound services were scrubbed on the final day, and new details on how airlines and freight operators are rebalancing flows via neighboring hubs and ports.

In particular, the combination of a full day without departures at Brussels, more than half of arriving flights canceled, and widely thinned rail and metro options around the capital means that itineraries still touching Belgium in the immediate aftermath need much more slack than usual. Even as airports publish normal schedules again, aircraft rotations, crew positioning, and ground handling teams will be recovering from the shock, and cargo backlogs at Antwerp Bruges will keep pressure on the road network feeding the port.

Practical Advice For Travelers Over The Next Few Days

If you are routed via Brussels, Charleroi, or Belgian rail hubs this week, start by confirming whether your flight actually operated, was rerouted, or remains in place on a delayed schedule. Airlines have been contacting affected passengers with options to rebook or accept refunds, but not everyone will have received or seen messages, especially if tickets were booked through third parties.

Where possible, consider rerouting via nearby hubs such as Amsterdam, Paris, or Frankfurt, and expect that prime morning departures and late evening arrivals on non strike days will be the first to refill with displaced passengers. Avoid separate tickets that string together low cost flights and rail segments through Belgium, because any residual delay in one leg will make it harder to claim support or reaccommodation on the next.

On the ground, assume that Belgian trains and city transit will run on irregular timetables for at least a short period as operators rebuild rolling stock and crew diagrams. Leave at least three hours between an arriving long haul sector and any onward rail or short haul flight, and consider booking airport hotels if you have critical meetings or cruise departures tied to Antwerp or North Sea ports.

Finally, if your travel plans are flexible, shifting visits to Belgium or routings through Brussels into the following week, once port congestion and airport rotations have had more time to stabilize, will significantly reduce the odds of surprise disruptions.