Brussels Charleroi Airport has published the list of a total of 44 flights that have been cancelled for this Saturday, July 15.
The airport also announced that detailed information for flights that have been cancelled for Sunday, July 16, will be published later.
According to the Aviation24 report, the cancelled flights on Saturday relate to destinations such as Rabat, Nîmes, Bergerac, Naples, Pisa, Valencia, Treviso, Ancoae, Girona, Stockholm, Nador, Warsaw, Oviedo (Asturias), Lisbon or Rijeka.
At the same time, other flights that often operate with a foreign-based crew will take place as usual. Through a statement, Ryanair confirmed that 60 per cent of the flights to and from Belgium will offer their services as normal.
Earlier this week, local media reports said that Belgian Ryanair pilots will take industrial action on July 15 and 16 to demand higher wages and better working conditions.
Pilots’ level of salaries was reduced by 20 per cent during the Coronavirus pandemic and remained at the same level.
According to Skift report, pilots residing in Belgium had given the Irish budget airline until today, July 14, to reconsider its plans to minimise the number of rest days for pilots, which according to them, were unlawful.
Negotiations with the airline’s management did not lead to a resolution; thus, based on Belgian media reports, a total of 80 per cent of pilots will join the industrial action announced for this weekend.
According to a report of Euronews Travel, two trade unions (ACV Plus and CNE), as well as the pilots’ union Beca warned about the strikes over pay and working conditions.
“We apologise in advance to passengers planning to travel with Ryanair between now and October 2024 who may be affected by these strikes. But we can no longer allow Ryanair to violate the basic principles of Belgian social dialogue,” the unions said in a press release.
Local media reports said that the strike could affect about 140 flights from Charleroi airport in the peak summer season.
Further industrial actions could be taken in the following months until the Coronavirus agreement expires in October this year.
In addition, as a result of the industrial actions, summer flights could also be highly affected if staff at one of Europe’s air traffic centres go ahead with such decisions.
Last year, Ryanair’s cabin crew based in Belgium led to the cancellation of a total of 107 flights departing from Brussels South Charleroi Airport (BSCA) for the New Year weekend alone.
