Night strikes at Charleroi cancel around 40 flights per day, over 800 at risk if action runs to 10 October

Air traffic controllers at Brussels South Charleroi Airport began nightly industrial action on 16 September, and Skeyes has warned that more than 800 flights could be affected if the dispute continues through its scheduled end on 10 October. The action runs every night between 22:00 and 08:00, during which air traffic control services are unavailable and no aircraft can take off or land at Charleroi.

Around 40 flights were cancelled during one of the first full days of disruption, consistent with Skeyes's projected average of 30 to 40 flights per day, with the impact expected to be higher on the airport's busiest days. The exact number of cancellations varies by daily schedule and by how individual airlines respond: some services are rescheduled to before 22:00 or after 08:00, or diverted to another airport, while many evening arrivals and early-morning departures are cancelled outright. Ryanair, described as Charleroi's largest airline, is among those most heavily affected, with evening services from several European destinations already cancelled along with the corresponding return or early-morning flights. Other carriers operating during the closure window may also need to modify their schedules.

The dispute centres on night-work arrangements and allowances for air traffic controllers, and negotiations between management and unions have so far failed to produce an agreement.

This case illustrates how a localised labour dispute at a single control tower can constrain an airport's operations well beyond the hours actually affected, since aircraft and crews positioned for a cancelled overnight flight are then unavailable for the schedule that follows. Airports that depend on a concentrated block of evening arrivals and early-morning departures, as Charleroi does with its low-cost carrier traffic, are more exposed to this kind of knock-on effect than airports with traffic spread more evenly across the day.

How the disruption evolves now depends on two things the material identifies directly: whether management and unions reach an agreement on night-work arrangements and allowances before 10 October, and how airlines including Ryanair choose to reschedule or divert services night by night. Passengers are advised to check flight status directly with their airline, since cancellation figures may continue to change at short notice through the remainder of the action.