Liège Airport cargo faces ongoing disruption amid nationwide walkouts

(LIÈGE, BELGIUM) Cargo flows through Liège Airport have been hit by a wave of industrial action by customs officers that began November 17, 2025, with “punctuality strikes” and work-to-rule actions slowing the movement of goods and forcing some shipments into lengthy queues. Under Belgian labour law, these punctuality strikes do not stop operations outright, but they have sharply changed the order in which cargo is handled and increased waiting times for many consignments.

At Liège Airport, customs officers taking part in the punctuality strikes are required to clear time-sensitive goods such as perishables and live animals first. General cargo is left to wait, creating a backlog as officers follow every procedure to the letter. The action is aimed at protesting management plans to overhaul staff rosters and night-shift premiums, which customs officers oppose. The dispute has focused attention on how a targeted slowdown at a single chokepoint within the airport can disrupt wider cargo operations even when flights continue to land and take off.

The customs unions at Liège Airport have said they intend to reassess the strike on November 30, 2025, leaving several days in which the work-to-rule actions are expected to continue. That reassessment could open the way to negotiations with Finance Minister Alexia Bertrand in an effort to avoid a longer period of disruption. Until that point, customs operations at the airport remain subject to the rules of the punctuality strikes, with priority given to perishable goods and live animals and non-urgent cargo pushed further back in the queue.

The current industrial action comes on top of a broader nationwide strike held in Belgium on November 26, 2025, which affected multiple airports, including Liège. That nationwide strike disrupted ground handling, security and customs operations, adding a further layer of difficulty for airlines, handlers and freight operators already dealing with the impact of the punctuality strikes at Liège Airport. While the nationwide action was time-limited, the local customs dispute at Liège has introduced continuing uncertainty over how quickly cargo can clear the airport’s facilities.

Liège Airport is being kept technically open by the rules governing these punctuality strikes, which are a form of work-to-rule action. Under this approach, customs officers are not walking off the job altogether. Instead, they insist on strictly applying every regulation and step in the clearance process, without the usual flexibility or informal shortcuts that help speed up normal operations. In practice, this has meant that flights carrying perishable goods and live animals continue to have their cargo cleared first, while less time-sensitive freight has to wait until those shipments are processed, and only then passes through customs.

Because the customs officers’ protest is focused on the internal organisation of their work – specifically, management plans to change staff rosters and adjust premiums for night shifts – it has turned a dispute over working conditions into visible delays in the cargo chain. The airport itself remains operational, and the strike does not formally close any terminals. However, as long as customs officers at Liège Airport adhere to the punctuality strikes and work-to-rule actions, the flow of cargo will be governed by these legally defined priorities, keeping pressure on management and the government while limiting the scope of the protest under labour law.

The unions have linked their next steps to the reassessment planned for November 30, 2025, a date that now marks a key moment for shippers and logistics providers watching to see whether the situation at Liège will ease or drag on. Finance Minister Alexia Bertrand has been named as the central figure on the government side for potential talks aimed at defusing the conflict. Any negotiation would have to address the planned overhaul of staff rosters and changes to night-shift premiums that triggered the mobilisation of customs officers in the first place.

The industrial action at Liège Airport has unfolded in a regulatory framework that obliges customs officers engaged in punctuality strikes to process certain categories of cargo first. Time-sensitive perishables – such as food products that require fast transit – and live animals cannot be held back in the same queues as general freight. That legal duty is meant to protect animal welfare and avoid waste of goods that cannot be stored indefinitely. At the same time, it means that other types of cargo, which might include industrial components, consumer products or e-commerce shipments, are indirectly used as leverage in the dispute, because their clearance can lawfully be delayed as customs officers insist on strictly following every step.

The broader nationwide strike on November 26, 2025 showed how quickly Belgian airports can feel the strain when multiple functions are hit at once. Ground handling, security screening and customs all faced disruption across the country, and Liège was among the airports affected. For cargo operators using the airport, that nationwide stoppage came in the middle of an already tense period defined by the punctuality strikes in customs. While the nationwide strike had a defined end, the work-to-rule actions at Liège remain open-ended until unions and the government either reach an agreement or decide to escalate or wind down the protest.

As of November 28, 2025, there is no clear indication that cargo operations at Liège Airport have fully recovered or that the punctuality strikes have ended. The customs unions’ commitment to review the situation on November 30, 2025 points to that date as the earliest opportunity for a shift in the current pattern of delays and prioritised clearances. Until then, the airport continues to operate under the constraints of the work-to-rule actions, with customs officers following each regulation precisely and moving non-priority cargo only after time-sensitive consignments are cleared.

The dispute has also drawn attention to the role of the Finance Ministry in supervising customs operations nationwide. Customs officers at Liège Airport fall under the authority of the Belgian Federal Public Service Finance – Customs and Excise, the body responsible for customs policy and enforcement across the country. With Finance Minister Alexia Bertrand identified as the key government figure in possible talks with unions, the outcome at Liège could have implications for how customs staff in other locations view their own working conditions, rosters and allowances.

For now, the situation remains defined by the combination of punctuality strikes and work-to-rule actions in customs, along with the recent memory of the nationwide strike that hit airports across Belgium on November 26, 2025. Cargo operators, airlines and handlers at Liège Airport are operating in a context where the legal framework keeps the airport open and guarantees clearance for perishables and live animals, but where general cargo has been pushed further back in the line. Whether that pattern continues into December will depend on what happens when customs unions and the Finance Ministry return to the table at the end of the month.