Brussels Airlines cancels nearly 700 summer flights

BRUSSELS: Brussels Airlines, the Belgian subsidiary of Lufthansa, said Tuesday it is cancelling nearly 700 flights over July and August to lighten the workload for staff, who recently staged a strike.

The airline said a total 675 flights were being ditched in the peak summer period -- 372 this month and 303 next month.

These "optimisations" were aimed at bringing "a better balance in the work/life of our crews," Brussels Airlines said on its website.

The decision came after the airline and unions held talks on Monday about work conditions following a June 23-24-25 strike that saw around 300 flights -- around 60 percent of the scheduled movements -- cancelled.

Brussels Airlines said it was "clearly meeting the demands of the unions and hope to thus definitively rule out further actions and reassure our passengers".

It noted that airlines and airports in many countries were facing "a turbulent summer" as passenger demand roared back after two years of Covid confinement, far outstripping capacity that had been stripped back during the pandemic.