Pilots strike grounds 75 per cent of Brussels Airlines flights

Brussels Airlines pilots began a two-day strike Monday, leading to the cancellation of 75 per cent of flights and affecting 60,000 travellers, the company said.

The strike will affect three-quarters of the 278 scheduled arriving and departing flights on Monday and 279 flights on Wednesday, the Lufthansa group subsidiary said.

The Belgium-based company, which was taken over by Lufthansa in late 2016, has asked its airline partners, which also include Swissair and Austrian Airlines, to increase capacity to Brussels to reduce the strike's impact.

The company said last week that months of negotiations had failed to produce a deal after the two sides focused more on increased wages when in fact the pilots were more concerned about having a better work-life balance.

The airline management is due to discuss the strike later today.