Charleroi ATC Strike Suspended as Mediation Begins

Air traffic controllers at Brussels South Charleroi Airport have suspended their nightly strike with immediate effect, clearing the way for mediated negotiations over night premiums. The liberal VSOA union, which represents the Skeyes controllers, announced the pause on Wednesday morning, bringing an early end to action that had been scheduled to run until 10 October.

“The representative unions have decided to agree to the start of negotiations on the night compensation for the Charleroi controllers, under the guidance of a mediator,” union official Lennert Mervilde said, as reported by VRT NWS. “To allow those negotiations to proceed in a serene atmosphere, we are suspending the strike with immediate effect.”

What Triggered the Dispute

The conflict centred on night premiums for the air traffic controllers employed by Skeyes, Belgium’s autonomous air navigation service provider. The dispute is tied to the wider transition towards digital control towers. Under the plan, controllers will manage traffic for both Charleroi and Liege airports from a digital control centre in Namur, rather than from towers at each site. That shift, and the accompanying measures for staff, has been a source of long-running unrest at Skeyes.

The strike itself began on the night of Wednesday 16 September, with controllers walking out every night between 22:00 and 08:00. The action was scheduled to run for 24 consecutive nights, until 10 October. At the heart of the disagreement is a gap between how management and unions characterise the premium demand. Skeyes said the Charleroi controllers were asking to raise the night premium to 160 percent of its current level, noting the premium was already more than 1,000 euros per shift. The union countered that its members simply want the same night compensation that applies in other units that receive one, notably Liege.

Two Airports, Two Realities

Skeyes has argued the comparison with Liege does not hold. In a statement defending its position, the company said the operational reality of the two airports is fundamentally different. Charleroi is closed at night, while Liege handles an average of around 27 night flights, against roughly three at Charleroi. “In the vast majority of cases, the last aircraft arrives before midnight. Once this last arrival is handled, the two air traffic controllers present can go to sleep,” Skeyes said, per RTBF.

The union disputes that framing, pointing to late-returning Ryanair aircraft. “There is an agreement between Charleroi airport and Ryanair that they may still arrive with aircraft stationed there. Last week, for example, the last aircraft only arrived in the early morning hours,” Mervilde said, as noted by VRT NWS.

The impact of the strike was felt across the airport’s schedule. Dozens of flights were cancelled on each night of action, the overwhelming majority of them Ryanair services, with airport officials warning that a cancelled outbound flight can also prevent the corresponding return leg. Skeyes estimated that roughly 832 flight movements could have been affected had the strike run its full course.

The Push for Mediation

The breakthrough followed a federal intervention. On Tuesday, Federal Mobility Minister Jean-Luc Crucke proposed the use of a neutral, independent mediator, explicitly conditioned on the strike being suspended first.

“I am not here to say who is wrong or who is right. The positions are known and the social dialogue must be allowed to run its course. But when the conflict drags on and its consequences affect travellers, workers and the entire economic activity of an airport every day, we have to try to recreate the conditions for dialogue,” Crucke said, per RTBF.

The mediation aims to restore a space for dialogue between Skeyes and worker representatives, identify points of convergence and guide the parties towards a negotiated settlement.

A Broader Pattern of Unrest

The Charleroi dispute is the latest chapter in a difficult year for Belgian air traffic control. Earlier strikes in June 2026 paralysed airports across the country, prompting Walloon Airports Minister Cecile Neven to call for a minimum service to shield essential traffic from repeated interruptions.

“This strike, which is not the doing of BSCA workers but of the air traffic controllers, directly hits Charleroi airport, its partners and up to 300,000 passengers. The current situation cannot continue,” Neven said.

What to Watch

The suspension is a pause, not a resolution. Negotiations on night compensation now move under a mediator, and both sides have signalled willingness to talk. Mervilde said the unions hope Skeyes “also seizes the opportunity and that the new round of negotiations leads to a supported agreement, so that social peace can be restored,” the unions’ decision confirmed by La Libre.

The immediate question is whether the talks can produce a durable agreement before the underlying tensions over the digital tower transition resurface. With the rollout in Namur still ahead, and repeated strikes having shown how quickly the dispute can escalate, the airport’s near-term stability now hinges on the mediator’s ability to bridge two very different accounts of what is fair.