Can Brussels Airlines’ Tel Aviv crews refuse to fly after the union dispute?

Brussels Airlines told Belgian unions on Thursday, 3 September, that pilots and cabin crew who feel psychologically unable to operate flights between Brussels Airport and Tel Aviv may invoke its existing “unfit to fly” procedure without repercussions. The clarification followed a strike notice from the Christian union ACV Puls, although the airline has kept the Israeli route in its normal crew roster and flights continued on Wednesday and Thursday, according to BRUZZ and BX1.

For Belgium-based passengers, airline employees and people with family connections to Israel or the Palestinian territories, the immediate result is continuity rather than cancellation: no strike date has been announced and the route remains operational. The unresolved question is whether an individual fitness procedure offers the same protection as the explicit right to decline a particular destination that ACV Puls is seeking.

The dispute began when Brussels Airlines stopped relying exclusively on volunteers and management staff for the Tel Aviv service. ACV Puls said the airline was abandoning an earlier understanding and compelling employees to accept the assignments. Union representative Jolinde Defieuw cited physical safety, psychological strain and conscientious objections connected to the conflict and humanitarian conditions in Gaza. The union wants employees to be able to refuse without financial, professional or disciplinary consequences and says any industrial action would be confined to Tel Aviv flights.

Brussels Airlines draws the boundary differently. Spokesperson Nico Cardone said after Thursday’s consultation that the company had listened to operational-safety concerns and reiterated the availability of “unfit to fly”. The airline maintains that safety is its highest priority and that destination decisions are based on security assessments and demand, not political judgements about governments. The latest clarification therefore protects a crew member who is not psychologically fit for duty, but it does not restore a volunteer-only roster or expressly create a destination-specific conscientious exemption.

That distinction matters because Belgium’s official position is more cautious than the airline’s operational assessment. The Federal Public Service Foreign Affairs, under Foreign Minister Maxime Prévot, advises against non-essential travel to Israel and Jerusalem because of the volatile regional security situation. Its guidance, last updated on 1 July, says missiles or drones may still target Israel and warns that airspace can close unpredictably. The advice is non-binding and written for travellers, however; it does not itself prohibit a Belgian airline from operating or determine whether professional crew may be assigned.

The argument also sits inside a wider European debate that cannot be reduced to aviation safety. ACV Puls describes the flights as an ethical issue in the context of Gaza and has used the term genocide, which remains the union’s characterisation rather than a final judicial determination cited here. The European Council, representing the EU’s 27 national leaders, said in June that it was gravely concerned about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and called on Israel to protect civilians, comply with international law and allow sustained humanitarian access. It also called for the disarmament of Hamas and other armed groups, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza and progress towards a two-state peace.

This leaves three distinct tests in tension: whether a flight can be operated safely, whether an individual employee is fit to operate it, and whether that employee should have a separate right of conscientious refusal. Brussels Airlines primarily answers the first two; ACV Puls insists the third cannot be absorbed into a medical or psychological procedure. No public federal intervention settling that labour-policy question was identified in the official material reviewed.

The next move rests with ACV Puls and the company’s consultation process. The union had not publicly responded to Thursday’s clarification in the reports available at publication, and it was not confirmed whether the strike notice would be withdrawn. Passengers should therefore monitor their booking and Brussels Airlines’ operational notices, while the central industrial question remains whether “unfit to fly” is a workable safeguard or an inadequate substitute for voluntary staffing.