A spontaneous strike by air traffic controllers has completely paralyzed air traffic in Belgium

On Tuesday, June 2, 2026, in the afternoon, passenger and cargo air traffic in Belgium came to a standstill due to an unannounced (“wildcat”) strike by the national air traffic control service, Skeyes. 

The protest, which began at 2:00 p.m. local time, led to a complete halt of takeoffs and landings at the country’s five main airports: Brussels-Zaventem (BRU), Charleroi (CRL), Liège (LGG), Antwerp (ANR), and Ostend-Bruges (OST). 

The administration of the country’s largest airport, Brussels Airport, officially urged passengers whose departures were scheduled between 2:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. not to come to the terminals at all, as absolutely all of these flights (about 200 planes) were promptly canceled by the airlines. Flights scheduled for 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM were rescheduled for later in the evening. A similar situation unfolded at Charleroi Airport, where the first unexpected wave of the strike took place early in the morning (from 2:30 a.m. to 7:00 a.m.), and the resumption of the protest in the afternoon completely shut down the airport until 9:00 p.m. Europe’s leading low-cost carrier, Ryanair, has already announced the forced cancellation of over 100 of its flights, disrupting the plans of nearly 20,000 passengers. The company’s CEO, Michael O’Leary, sharply criticized the air traffic controllers’ actions, calling the lack of any advance warning about the airspace shutdown unacceptable.

According to the Belgian public broadcaster VRT, the social unrest was caused by a protracted conflict between the management of Skeyes and union activists. Air traffic controllers are protesting the terms of staff transfers to the future unified digital air traffic control center in Namur, which is set to centralize the control functions of the Liège and Charleroi airport towers starting in 2027. Rank-and-file employees refused to support the preliminary compromise memorandum signed the day before by the union secretary, expressing serious concerns regarding the cybersecurity of digital systems, inconvenient shift schedules, the social consequences of relocation, as well as the persistence of significant wage disparities among air traffic controllers in different regions. Meanwhile, transit flights flying over Belgian territory at an altitude of over 7,500 meters under Eurocontrol’s management continue to operate as usual.