Strike actions lead to 2,395 flights being cancelled at Brussels Airport over the past year, affecting some 330,000 passengers.
Across a seven strike day period in 2025, 275,000 passengers missed flights, according to airport data released earlier this month.
Brussels airport said it resulted in an estimated economic loss of nearly €175 million for Belgium.
“Each day of strike action represents a loss of €25 million for our economy. But above all, in the long term, it simply damages perceptions of the reliability of our airport,” Belgian MP Kjell Vander Elst said.
“Whoever messes with our airport messes with our prosperity. And while the Flemish government is going into further debt to put a Flemish lion on the roof of the departure terminal, the federal government is doubling the air tax. It makes no sense,” he adds.
Under a new budget agreement, the federal government intends to increase the tax on air travel to €10 per passenger departing from the airport by 2027, up from €5 currently.
