Business and leisure travellers using Brussels South Charleroi Airport woke up on Saturday 19 September to find that 46 flights had been pre-emptively cancelled as a rolling night-shift strike by skeyes air-traffic controllers entered its fourth day. The controllers, represented by the SLFP/VSOA and CSC unions, are walking out every night between 22:00 and 08:00 from 16 September until at least 10 October after five failed rounds of pay talks with the state navigation service. Charleroi closes officially at 22:00, yet delayed aircraft are routinely handled later, and staff say they receive no dedicated night premium. Skeyes counters that an existing shift allowance already exceeds €1,000 a month and that night movements are technically exceptions. The impact is substantial for the low-cost carrier market on which many corporate mobility programmes rely. Ryanair, which bases a large fleet at Charleroi, has been forced to cancel late-evening arrivals and early-morning departures, in turn grounding the corresponding daytime rotations that those aircraft would have operated across Europe. Airport management estimates that as many as 800 flight movements could be affected should the dispute run its course. Friday 18 September already saw 42 cancellations; the 46 scrapped on Saturday mark the highest daily total so far. Disruption is not limited to passengers originating in Belgium. Many intra-European itineraries route through Charleroi for cost reasons, meaning missed connections for travellers from France, Italy, Spain and beyond. Travel-management companies report a spike in re-ticketing requests and warn of mounting hotel and duty-of-care costs for employers with staff stranded overnight. Although daytime flights outside the strike window are scheduled to operate, aircraft unable to position overnight risk further knock-on cancellations the following morning. No mediation talks are planned, and the Walloon regional mobility minister has said that airport labour relations fall outside his remit, adding political uncertainty to the industrial one. For now, experts advise mobility managers to avoid booking departures before 08:00 or arrivals after 22:00, to monitor airline apps for rolling updates, and to prepare contingency ground transport to Brussels or Liège airports where capacity permits. If the stand-off drags on, the strike could harden wider EU debates about minimum service levels in aviation – discussions that Belgium, which assumes the rotating EU Council Presidency in early 2027, will have to steward. For globally mobile staff and the companies that employ them, the situation underscores the fragility of low-cost point-to-point networks on which many assignment and commuter strategies depend.
Source: Strike Tracker / TravelExtra
