Aviapartner employees at Brussels Airport are on strike at the start of the spring break.
Several flights left without luggage on Saturday morning after a spontaneous strike broke out at baggage handler Aviapartner at Zaventem airport. Strikes are not pleasant for anyone, but these actions at the start of the spring break do have a considerable impact for travelers who preferred to start their holiday differently.
On the one hand there is the workload and on the other hand there are problems with the driver's license at the airport.
Employees are dissatisfied with the working conditions, shifts are limited and the workload is much too high. Meanwhile, a TUI spokesperson said there is no reason for great panic. “We do indeed work with Aviapartner, but our own people can deal with that problem themselves. We have already done that in previous strikes. That is a great reassurance,” says spokesman Piet Demeyere. TUI has a license to handle baggage itself and we started doing that this morning.
According to the spokesperson, one of their flights left without luggage for Malaga. 48.000 passengers are expected at the airport on Saturday and a total of 60.000 on Sunday. More than 40 percent of all flights at Zaventem are handled by Aviapartner. These include Tui, KLM, TAP, Iberia and British Airways.
[update sunday morning]
Baggage handling by Aviapartner will resume as normal at Zaventem airport on Sunday. The socialist transport union BTB confirms this on Sunday morning. Negotiations between staff and management will continue on Wednesday.
