Strike or disruption at Charleroi: will your flight leave?

How do you know if your flight leaves despite a strike?

The airline decides whether your flight is cancelled. It is therefore the one that tells you first, provided it has your correct details. The other sources confirm the flight's status on the day.

If you booked through an agency or a comparison site, check that the booking carries your own email address and number, not the intermediary's.

A flight not cancelled the day before can still change. Check departures before leaving home, then today's delays and cancellations. Both pages take their data from the airport's board: if a message from your airline says otherwise, the airline is right.

What disruptions has Charleroi Airport had in 2026?

Here are the 2026 episodes documented by the Belgian press and Air Journal, from oldest to most recent.

Two lessons stand out. Stoppages caused by an incident are short, from a few minutes to an evening. A controllers' strike, on the other hand, can cancel flights for several days in a row, and it is often announced by a notice you can follow.

Why the Skeyes strike hits early-morning and late-evening flights

Skeyes is the company that provides air traffic control in Belgium. Its Charleroi controllers stopped work every night from 22:00 to 08:00 from 16 September 2026, under a notice running until 10 October inclusive. They want night allowances in line with those of their Liège colleagues, as part of the future digital control tower in Namur, which is meant eventually to handle both airports.

No controller, no take-off. Flights scheduled in that window are the first to go. In our records of flights from 30 October to 9 November 2026, 145 of the 891 scheduled departures fell between 22:00 and 08:00: 85 at 6 am, 55 at 7 am and 5 at 10 pm. The first morning waves are therefore the most exposed.

The evening matters too, because an aircraft that cannot get back before 22:00 does not leave the next morning. On 23 September, BSCA expected 42 cancelled flights, 12 in the morning and 30 in the evening, and about 14 more delayed or moved, according to Air Journal.

The unions suspended the strike on 23 September to give mediation a chance, as proposed the day before by federal Mobility Minister Jean-Luc Crucke. As of 7 November 2026, we found no article on the outcome of that mediation. A suspension is not an agreement: our news item on the 42 cancelled flights gives the details of the dispute.

National strike in Belgium: an open airport is not enough

A national union action day does not hit Charleroi and Brussels Airport in the same way. In a press release of 7 October 2026, BSCA announced that all scheduled departures and arrivals at Charleroi were maintained on 9 and 12 October. On that same 9 October, Brussels Airport lost about a hundred flights because of a strike at Alyzia, one of its ground handlers, according to Air Journal.

A flight that operates does not mean a trouble-free journey. That day, Charleroi Airport asked travellers to allow more time to get there, because of disrupted transport, road problems or local actions. Buses and trains may run less, and the airline will not wait for you if you arrive after check-in closes.

On announced action days, take three precautions:

• read the airport's press release and your airline's message the day before;
• check your own transport, train, bus or shuttle, with its operator;
• leave earlier than usual, especially for a morning flight.

To set the time to leave home, use our departure-time calculator and add the margin the day calls for.

Drone, fuel leak: why a single incident stops everything

Charleroi has only one runway. When it is closed, all traffic stops, departures and arrivals alike.

On 25 August 2026, an aircraft lost fuel on take-off. The runway closed from 19:30 to 20:40, according to an airport spokesperson quoted by Paris Match. Ten Ryanair and Wizz Air flights were diverted, four other aircraft stayed in the air longer, and all of them eventually landed at Charleroi once the runway had been cleaned and inspected.

In September, a private drone halted operations for about 25 minutes. An arriving aircraft was put in a holding pattern and the passengers of another were taken off as a precaution, according to Air Journal. The airport said the rest of the schedule was not significantly disrupted. Air Journal recalls that in November 2025, Brussels Airport, Charleroi and Liège had already suspended traffic after drone sightings.

These stoppages come without warning. If you are already at the gate, stay there and listen to announcements: a flight delayed by an hour often leaves the same evening. If someone close to you is due to land, a diverted flight may come back later in the evening, as on 25 August.

Flight cancelled by a strike: what the airline owes you

European Regulation EC 261/2004 separates two things: what you are always owed, and the fixed compensation, which depends on the cause.

Always owed, whatever the strike: the choice between a refund of the ticket within seven days and another flight to your destination, plus care during the wait, meals and a hotel if departure slips to the next day. Air Journal pointed this out during the Skeyes strike: the duty of care remains in full.

Compensation depends on who is striking:

• a strike by the airline's own staff: according to Your Europe, this is not an extraordinary circumstance, so compensation is still owed;
• a strike outside the airline, by air traffic controllers or an airport contractor: it can be an extraordinary circumstance, and the airline may then refuse compensation;
• in that second case, the airline must prove the link between the strike and your flight, and that it could not avoid it.

Keep the cancellation message and your receipts for meals, hotel or transport, and note the actual arrival time. The amounts, delay thresholds and how to complain in Belgium are explained in our guide to your rights when a flight is delayed or cancelled.