Belgium Flight Tax 2027: €7 Announced, 20 Ryanair Route Cuts

What the tax costs, and on which flights

The federal departure tax is charged on passengers who take off from a Belgian airport. According to the Belgian and French press of July 2026, it will rise from €5 to €7 per passenger on 1 January 2027, for international flights between 500 and 3,500 kilometres. The initial draft set €10. The amount was brought down to €7 after negotiation, according to vacancesweb.fr and VRT News.

Why the starting figures differ

Ryanair’s release and the Belgian daily DH speak of a rise « from €2 to €7 », or +250%. The 2026 Belgian sources read for this article, including vacancesweb, 21news and VRT, start from €5. We therefore keep « €5 to €7 », which matches the recent sources. The +250% starts from €2: that figure matches the EU rate in force before 1 July 2025 (moore.be, 28 April 2025, read; Chamber text 56K0909, extract). It appears in none of the 2026 sources consulted. The method of calculation is not confirmed either: the sources sometimes say per passenger, sometimes per ticket.

Key points

• The €7 rate only applies to international flights of 500 to 3,500 km from Belgium.
• No 2027 rate is documented for flights over 3,500 km. For flights under 500 km, the sources disagree.
• The tax is paid on departure: a flight arriving in Belgium is not taxed, under the departure-based principle, to be confirmed against the legal text.
• Connections and transit are exempt today (2022 law); whether that continues in 2027 has not been verified.

This federal tax is not a tourist tax. Our comparison of tourist taxes in Europe covers the other levies.

If your flight leaves from Brussels-Zaventem, the product below is a private transfer from the airport. We have not compared it with shuttles or the train. It can be booked online; its availability was checked on 25 October 2026 for the 29 dates from 2 to 30 November 2026, and the other dates were not checked.

Zaventem loses 7 routes, Charleroi loses 12 and suspends one

Ryanair presented its winter schedule in Brussels on 20 October 2026. The named route lists published by the Brussels Times and Air Journal show 7 routes from Brussels-Zaventem and 13 from Charleroi. The Brussels Times standfirst gives 8 and 12 routes: we keep the lists, which count 7 and 13. One route from Zaventem is kept, the one to Dublin. The total of 20 is the figure from the airline’s release, which is not a neutral source. Of the 13 Charleroi routes, only one, Nîmes, is suspended; the other 12 are announced as cancelled.

One point to keep straight: Madrid and Barcelona are routes from Brussels-Zaventem, not from Charleroi. A traveller leaving from Charleroi is not affected by those two cities, but is if their flight leaves from Zaventem.

What the lists say

For all routes except Nîmes, the announcement gives no effective date: Ryanair only refers to winter 2026-2027.

Charleroi stays open

The Walloon minister, in her answer to question no. 159 in the Walloon Parliament (6 January 2026), notes that Ryanair accounts for more than 80% of Charleroi’s traffic. According to VRT, the airline withdrew 5 of the 18 aircraft it based at Charleroi in July 2026. Ryanair also announces the withdrawal of 6 aircraft from Belgium on 20 October 2026. The 1.1 million seats for the winter are an airline figure, which does not cover the same scope as the aircraft withdrawn. No source read announces the airport closing: BSCA says it continues talks with the airline (aviation24, extract, date not verified).

For a trip to southern Europe from northern France, our overview of summer 2026 low-cost routes compares the new routes of Ryanair, easyJet and Wizz Air.

Sarajevo is among the routes cut from Charleroi. For direct flights from Paris, read our guide to Sarajevo.

What is exempt, and what protects you

Connecting passengers are exempt from the tax. The 2022 law provides for this exemption, and the Belgian Constitutional Court upheld it in ruling no. 165/2023 of 30 November 2023. The court dismissed the appeals by Ryanair and the Belgian Aviation Federation against the tax, and found the exemption for passengers in transit or on a connection reasonable. The exemption applies today. Whether it will still apply in 2027 has not been verified in the texts.

The 2022 law exempts passengers on connecting flights and stopovers. We have not verified whether a passenger who lands in Brussels and departs again on the same booking falls under this exemption.

If Ryanair cancels your flight

The EU’s official FAQ on air passenger rights provides for a refund or re-routing. The refund must be paid within 7 days. If you are told at least 14 days before departure, compensation is not due, except in exceptional circumstances. Start with the airline: ask for a refund or re-routing before thinking about compensation. The sources read do not say whether the departure tax is refunded when the flight is cancelled: ask the airline.

The amount of compensation depends on the flight distance. The fixed amounts are set out in EC Regulation 261/2004, but they are not on the official page consulted for this article. Check them on EUR-Lex before claiming.

Charleroi, Zaventem, Lille: three ways to reach Brussels

To reach Brussels from northern France, the land options can be compared with flights. The prices below were checked on 25 October 2026. They are not guaranteed and change with the day and time. Only the Flibco FAQ was read in full: the other figures come from search extracts, flagged in the table.

The Flibco bus runs from Charleroi to Brussels-Midi in about 55 minutes, from €14.99 according to its FAQ. The frequency shown varies from one page to another: check the timetable when you book.

The TGV runs from Lille to Brussels-Midi in about 34 minutes, from €17 in 2nd class according to SNCF Connect. Eurostar runs from Paris Nord to Brussels-Midi in 1h 22min, city centre to city centre. A €29 promotion is circulating on deal sites, but that price is not a reliable reference.

For Madrid or Seville, Volotea announced routes from Lille-Lesquin to Madrid and Seville in spring 2026. We have not verified that they are on sale this winter, and we have not recorded any prices: check the airline’s website.

Charleroi remains open, except for the Nîmes route during the announced period. Liège is not among the alternatives: the airport has had no scheduled passenger flights since 4 January 2026, according to Air Journal.

What the increase changes in a budget

For one person leaving Belgium in 2027 on an international flight of 500 to 3,500 km, the tax goes from €5 to €7, so €2 more per trip. For a couple, the increase is €4. This amount does not include the ticket price, which depends on the date, the season and the baggage options.

For a return trip, the tax is paid on departure from Belgium. If the return leaves from abroad, it applies only once, on the outbound flight, under the departure-based principle, to be confirmed against the legal text. If both legs leave from a Belgian airport, it is paid twice, so €14 per person at the €7 rate. This case is a calculation, to be confirmed against the legal text.

Ryanair announces higher fares in 2027, which it attributes to the end of its fuel hedging. These are its own claims. We have found no independent study measuring the effect of the Belgian tax on prices. Our analysis of airfares and jet fuel details the cost components.

What we could not verify

• The legal text (Moniteur belge, SPF Finances) could not be consulted. The amount and the distance bands rest on the press.
• The rate for flights under 500 km and over 3,500 km in 2027.
• Whether the transit exemption will be maintained in 2027.
• No official reaction from the federal government or from Brussels Airport to the 20 October 2026 announcement was found in the sources consulted.
• The seat and passenger figures quoted by Ryanair are company data, not independently verified.
• Whether the departure tax is refunded when a flight is cancelled: the sources read do not say.