Brussels South Charleroi Airport (CRL) entered the sixth night of unprecedented industrial action on 21 September, as air-traffic-controllers employed by the Belgian public ATC provider skeyes walked off the job from 22:00 to 08:00. The rolling night-shift strike, announced on 15 September after five failed mediation rounds, is scheduled to run for 24 consecutive nights until 10 October. It affects all movements during the eight-hour window, forcing mainly low-cost carrier Ryanair – which bases 16 aircraft at CRL – to cancel or retime dozens of rotations each day. The airport warned of 34 cancellations for Monday night and early Tuesday morning, bringing the total to roughly 160 flights scrubbed since the first walk-out on 16 September. The dispute centres on compensation for night work. Controllers argue they receive no dedicated night allowance even though the airport regularly permits late arrivals after its official 22:00 closure. Skeyes counters that the existing shift premium already exceeds €1,000 per month and says the airport is technically "closed" overnight. Management’s latest offer – an additional €10,000 gross per year from October 2028 plus €10,000 in one-off bonuses linked to the company’s digital-tower programme – was tabled on 20 September but made conditional on an immediate suspension of the strike. Unions SLFP/VSOA and CSC have yet to respond, and no new talks are scheduled. Operationally, the walk-outs hit the first and last wave of the day, disrupting business travellers who rely on early-morning departures to European financial hubs and late-evening returns. While daytime flights outside the strike window continue, aircraft and crews stranded overnight elsewhere create knock-on cancellations the following morning. Ryanair has been releasing next-day cancellations only the evening before, complicating contingency planning for corporates and travel managers. The Walloon regional mobility minister has urged both sides back to the table, but the federal mobility minister insists the dispute falls outside his remit. With Belgium’s EU Presidency semester starting in January 2027, aviation stakeholders fear prolonged industrial unrest could tarnish the country’s reputation as a reliable gateway for multinationals. Practical advice: travellers booked on flights before 08:00 or after 22:00 should monitor airline notifications closely and consider re-routing via Brussels Zaventem or Liège. Companies with assignees in Belgium should activate travel-risk policies and warn staff of potential overnight delays through 10 October.
Source: StrikeTracker
