Belgian Air Traffic Controllers Strike Over Digital Control Centre Plans, Halting Flights for Seven Hours

All flights to and from Belgium were suspended for seven hours starting at 2pm after air traffic controllers walked out on strike. Skeyes, Belgium's civil air navigation and traffic control authority, issued a memo to airports worldwide confirming that no flights to or from the country would be possible from 2pm onwards.

One hundred departure and arrival flights were cancelled at Brussels airport.

The airport warned passengers not to travel to the terminal and to await contact from their airline. Brussels Airlines urged customers with flights departing between 2pm and 10pm to stay away from the airport until further notice. A spokesman for the airport said: "We ask passengers who had a flight between 2pm and 9pm not to come to the airport.

They will be contacted by their airline. " Nico Cardone, spokesman for Brussels Airlines, said: "The impact will inevitably be significant. That is why we are indeed asking departing travellers not to come to the airport until further notice.

The strike was expected to last until 9pm and was likely to affect Charleroi, Liège and Ostend airports. Flights scheduled after 9pm were expected to proceed as normal. Passengers were advised to monitor their airline's communications and the airport's website for updates.

Skeyes manages all air traffic to and from Belgian airports and controls the airspace up to approximately 7,500 metres. Aircraft flying at higher altitudes over Belgium can continue their journeys as normal. Belgium serves as a major transit hub for passengers travelling between the UK and Europe.

The industrial action was triggered by a dispute over plans to introduce a new digital control centre in Namur, south of Brussels. The centre, due to be operational from next year, would take over responsibility for managing air traffic at Liège and Charleroi airports, including departing and landing flights as well as ground movements.