Brace for chaos at Brussels airports

If you want to fly out of the Belgian capital on Tuesday, you better have a backup plan. Both Brussels Zaventem and Brussels South Charleroi airports will be massively disrupted by a nationwide strike by security, cleaning and catering staff. Last Friday, Brussels Airport announced the cancellation of all departing flights for Tuesday. In its latest update issued Monday and shared with POLITICO, the airport said that “around 42,000 passengers (32,000 departing and 10,000 arriving) are affected by the strike” and that it expects “14,000 arriving passengers tomorrow (instead of the 24,000 initially planned).” Cargo operations, on the other hand, should be relatively unaffected by the strike, the airport assured. About 200 flights have been canceled by Brussels Airlines alone — the Belgian subsidiary of Lufthansa Group — which said in an emailed statement that it had 21,000 passengers booked for Oct. 1. Arriving flights are “still possible,” the airline added. “Arriving passenger flights may operate, but cancellations are likely,” Brussels Airport said on its website.<br/>