BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Brussels Airlines said on Friday that it would cancel most of its flights on Oct. 1 due to a Belgian national strike of security workers.
Brussels Airport, the largest airport in the country, had asked airlines to review their schedules because the strike would lead to a reduction in security screenings.
The airport said a large number of security staff would be expected to participate in the strike and predicted a major impact on airport operations that day.
Brussels Airlines’ base is located at Brussels Airport and is one of the hub airlines of Lufthansa Group.
A spokesperson for Brussels Airlines said it would need to cancel 80% of its 203 flights scheduled for the day. Passengers would be offered an alternative flight schedule with a flight on an earlier departure date, later departure date or on the same day through another Lufthansa Group hub.
Some 2.4 million passengers and 18,600 flights travelled through Brussels Airport last month, according to the airport.
October’s strike will come less than a month after flight traffic from Belgium’s Charleroi airport, a major hub for the budget airline Ryanair, was snarled by multiple days of strikes by that airport’s employees.
(Reporting by Makini Brice; Editing by Alex Richardson)
