All flights to popular European tourist hotspot to be suspended for 7 hours

All flights to and from Belgium have been suspended for seven hours after air traffic controllers walked out on strike.

Belgian air traffic controller company Skeyes issued a memo to airports worldwide this afternoon confirming all flights to and from Belgium would not be possible from 2pm onwards following industrial action.

As a result, 100 departure and arrival flights have been cancelled at Brussels airport.

The airport has issued a warning to passengers to not travel to the terminal and to await contact from their airline.

Skeyes is Belgium's civil air navigation and traffic control authority, responsible for managing the country's airspace on behalf of the Belgian state.

Expected to last until 9pm today, the strike is likely to have a knock-on effect beyond Brussels, impacting the country’s other airports, Charleroi, Liège and Ostend, Belgian media reports.

The disruption is likely to impact flights outside of Belgium, as it is a major transit hub for passengers travelling between the UK and Europe.

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. We regret the impact of this strike on our passengers and are closely monitoring the situation together with all involved partners."

Brussels Airlines also urged its customers with flights departing between 2pm and 10pm to stay away from the airport until further notice.

Spokeman Nico Cardone 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.

“They should, however, keep an eye on their mobile phones or email for communication regarding their flight, in case the situation changes."

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Flights scheduled after 9pm are expected to proceed as normal for the time being, though passengers have been advised to monitor their airline's communications and the airport's website for the latest updates.

Skeyes manages all air traffic to and from Belgian airports and controls the airspace up to approximately 7,500 metres, meaning aircraft flying at higher altitudes over Belgium can continue their journeys as normal.

The industrial action has been triggered after a dispute over plans to introduce a new digital control centre in Namur, south of Brussels.

This relocation would take over responsibility for managing air traffic at Liège and Charleroi airports.

The centre in question is due to be operational from next year and would handle departing and landing flights for both airports, as well as ground movements.

This would leave the existing control towers to be vacant as a result.

Trade unions at Skeyes have been in negotiations with management over the transition after staff became concerned the shift to digital control towers would reduce the number of air traffic controllers over time.

A preliminary agreement was struck between the parties yesterday, which involved salary increases, fixed monthly pay rises and salary cap bonuses.

Additional benefits under the proposed deal included an extra mileage allowance for three years and two days of leave for staff who chose to relocate closer to the new Namur centre.

However, staff rejected the agreement, prompting a wave of spontaneous strike action beginning on Monday evening when control tower employees at Liège and Charleroi walked out, with others across Skeyes' departments following suit.

As a result, there was no air traffic at Belgian airports from 2.30am on Tuesday, with services at Brussels Airport resuming at 7am and those at Liège, Charleroi and Ostend not restarting until 9.30am.

Despite that earlier resumption, Skeyes staff have now walked out again, with management saying it wants to renegotiate the entire agreement but acknowledging that offer was insufficient to prevent the fresh strike.

Negotiations remain ongoing, with management expressing hope the action would not last the full duration.