Air travel disruptions across Belgium this Wednesday March 20th

Air traffic to and from Belgium will face significant disruptions until at 15h today due to an air traffic controller strike.

“The strike will have a significant impact on air travel until this afternoon,” said the public body responsible for air traffic control, Skeyes, in a statement.

Brussels Airport has claimed that airport traffic could be disrupted until 3pm.

Previous action in Canac2, Steenokkerzeel’s air traffic control tower, has already caused significant delays, resulting in no air traffic flying over Belgium on Wednesday morning between 1:30am and 3:45am. Skeyes has deemed the much of this strike action to be illegal.

It is mainly cargo, rather than commercial, flights that have been affected by these actions by the Belgian Guild of Air Traffic Controllers (BGTAC), the professional association representing the majority of air traffic controllers.

In recent weeks, trade unions ACV-Transcom and Liberal ACLVB have also filed a strike notice due to a whole host of problems, including a lack of personnel and a heavy workload. Both of these groups carried out warning actions last week and have since been negotiating with their senior management, although both sides have yet to reach an agreement.