A strike by air traffic controllers at Charleroi Airport has led Ryanair to cancel nearly 30 flights on Wednesday, according to the airport’s flight schedule.
The industrial action begins on Wednesday evening and will take place during every night shift from 22:00 to 08:00 until 10 October.
The disruption is being felt earlier than the official start of the strike at Brussels South Charleroi Airport. The first cancelled flight was due to depart at 16:10 on Wednesday for Bucharest, because its return service was scheduled to land in Charleroi after 22:00.
That outbound flight was also cancelled. In total, 14 departing flights and 14 return flights were scrapped on Wednesday, affecting routes to and from destinations including Ibiza, Madrid, Venice, Bologna, Manchester and Stockholm.
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On Thursday morning, the first eight departing flights of the day, along with their return services, had also already been cancelled. Those routes include Barcelona, Budapest and Helsinki.
The dispute at air traffic control provider Skeyes centres on the planned introduction of “digital towers”, which are due to manage flights for the airports of Charleroi and Liège in future.
Under those plans, a new digital control centre in Namur will oversee air traffic for the two Walloon airports. The conflict focuses on demands for higher night-shift bonuses for air traffic controllers in Charleroi.
Several conciliation attempts have failed to produce an agreement. According to Skeyes, the nightly strikes are expected to affect more than 800 flights.
