Ryanair Cancels 100 Flights in Brussels Airport Atc Strike

Ryanair said the brussels airport atc strike by Belgian air traffic controllers on 2 June forced the short-notice cancellation of 100 flights to and from Charleroi and Zaventem Airports. The airline said almost 20,000 passengers were disrupted.

Ryanair said the controllers withdrew ATC services without any prior notice, leaving passengers travelling to and from Belgium facing cancellations and delays on 2 June. Ryanair also said its passengers were stranded at Charleroi and Zaventem Airports.

Charleroi and Zaventem Airports

The airline said the strike was illegal and described it as a wildcat strike by Belgian ATC controllers. Ryanair said airlines received zero notice of the stoppage, and it said that left it with no time to absorb the disruption across the two airports.

That short notice is the practical issue for travelers. A flight plan can be adjusted when an airline gets advance warning; with zero notice, Ryanair said the cancellations landed immediately on passengers already at the airports or on their way there.

Ryanair and the EU Commission

Ryanair said it has repeatedly called on the EU Commission to reform Europe’s broken ATC system. The airline said airlines pay millions of euros annually for ATC services, and it said the EU Commission had made zero progress on protecting the single market for air travel from ATC strikes.

Ryanair also said that if controllers must strike, they should provide at least 24 hours’ notice. That would not undo the 100 cancellations on 2 June, but it would give airlines and passengers a window to reroute, rebook, or avoid the airport altogether before the disruption reaches the terminal.

Belgian air traffic controllers

Ryanair said Belgian air traffic controllers withdrew ATC services on 2 June, and it said passengers travelling to and from Belgium suffered flight cancellations and delays. The airline’s account places the disruption squarely at the two airports it named, rather than across the rest of its network.

For travelers booked through Charleroi or Zaventem, the immediate issue was not the cause of the strike but the loss of service on the day itself. Ryanair said almost 20,000 passengers were affected, and the next step for anyone hit by the cancellations was to follow the airline’s rebooking or alternative-travel instructions for flights touching Belgium on 2 June.