Strike at Brussels South Charleroi airport, TUI fly Belgium re-routes two flights to Brussels Airport

Following the strike by security personnel at Charleroi airport, the airline TUI fly Belgium will divert its two flights scheduled to Tenerife South and Murcia this afternoon to Brussels airport.

Affected passengers have now been contacted. These passengers are asked to go directly to Brussels airport at the originally scheduled time. As Charleroi airport is not always accessible because of union blockades, TUI fly Belgium cannot organise a bus transfer to Brussels.

Charleroi airport was not accessible this morning: the staff of Security Master, which ensures security at the airport, occupied the roundabouts towards the site, creating chaos at the airport. Some passengers had to queue for more than 4 hours and nevertheless missed their flights. Many flights departed with a delay of one to two hours, but with few or no passengers.

The unions had filed a strike notice over the dissatisfaction of Security Master’s staff. This is related to the decision by BSCA Security – which is responsible for airport security – to award a future public tender for passenger security checks to two operators instead of one.

“The unions of our subcontractor BSCA Security are blocking the security checks. The hostage-taking of our passengers and BSCA staff by this action is simply outrageous,” said the airport’s communications service.

Update: as insufficient security staff willing to work has been found, the airport of Charleroi will be closed from 16:00 this afternoon.