The Dutch government recently cut flight movements at Schiphol airport (check the following video for a more detailed discussion: https://youtu.be/8LjqUnzoOBM), which one of the major airports in Europe. Now it is thinking about levying a special tax for transfer passengers. In this context, Wouter Dewulf from The University of Antwerp and I, Achim I. Czerny, from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University discuss the role of transfer passengers for connectivity and economic growth. We do this by discussing the connectivity of Brussels airport before and after Sabena, the former flag carrier of Belgium, in 2001.