100,000 travelers hit by a strike: « Thousands are already leaving on Sunday »
© Belga
Around 100,000 Belgians would leave during the strike Monday or have just returned from their journey. Thousands are already leaving on Sunday. « It costs the travel agencies 5.5 million euros, » says the sector. Some travelers are still waiting for a solution.
With around one hundred thousand, they are, the Belgians for whom March 31 was a crucial part of their journey. « That seems a lot, but people travel all year round, » says CEO Koen van den Bosch of the Flemish Travel Agencies Association (VVR). « Older people, single people and couples without children do not have to take the school holidays into account. Newly compiled families can also travel perfectly in the weeks that they do not have the children. »
There are a total of 37,000 package travelers, for whom the travel agencies had to look for an alternative as soon as it is known that the airport also closes its doors due to the strike. Thousands of them are already starting on Sunday.
Extra cost
The extra night is at the expense of the consumer, but all other expenses are covered by the travel agencies. And that goes up. « If the airlines distract their flights to the Netherlands, France or Germany, the travel agencies are responsible for the transfers, » says Van den Bosch. « There are also extra costs at the destination, because the already planned transfer on Monday had already been paid. The lost night for those who are not leaving until Tuesday is also at our expense. The hotels and organizers at the destination have no message that we are already being stopped again. »
All those costs, also for the extra work, increase to an estimated 5.5 million euros for the six hundred travel agencies, says the VVR. « It is already the third strike this year, with a total cost of 16 million euros. And this is only low season. It is not necessary that when this happens during peak periods, the impact is many times higher and for us as a sector that is of course unacceptable. »
Dramatic image
« In addition, the impact on the image of Belgium is dramatic for travelers from abroad, » says Van den Bosch. « That is also feedback we receive from our foreign colleagues. In recent months, our country has sometimes been called the National Society of Belgian strikes. This must stop. »
Travelers who booked airline tickets themselves depend on what the airline decides. Most of them soon indicated that their flight was being canceled and alternatives offered. But the final-year students of Site-A in Aarschot, who would leave for Málaga and Barcelona on Monday, remained in uncertainty for a long time because their airline did not delete the flight. That only came in order on Friday afternoon. They now know that they have to leave Amsterdam on Monday.
