Severe thunderstorms passing over Belgium on Saturday morning temporarily disrupted operations at Brussels Airport, resulting in delays of up to two hours for several departing flights.
According to airport spokesperson Ihsane Chioua Lekhli, ground operations were suspended between 07:00 and 07:30 local time due to intense lightning activity in the vicinity of the airport.
“When thunderstorms and lightning occur, ground operations must be temporarily halted for safety reasons, especially during periods of intense lightning such as this morning,” the spokesperson said to Belgian daily Het Laatste Nieuws.
During the suspension, passengers were unable to board aircraft and baggage handling activities were paused, affecting a number of flights scheduled to depart during the busy morning peak.
The temporary interruption quickly created knock-on effects across the airport’s departure operations. Some flights experienced delays of up to two hours as aircraft, passengers and baggage could not be processed according to schedule.
One passenger told local media that their flight, scheduled to depart at 06:50, did not begin taxiing until after 08:00.
Brussels Airport confirmed that the disruption mainly affected flights departing between 07:00 and 07:30. Ground activities resumed once the storm cell had passed and operations have since returned to normal.