Charleroi airport, the second in Belgium for passenger traffic, will remain inaccessible for departures this Wednesday due to a strike by security guards, the operating company BSCA announced.
On Tuesday, for the second consecutive day, a strike by employees of the Security Masters firm, in charge of boarding control in particular, prevented hundreds of passengers from accessing their plane.
The company that operates the airport, Brussels South Charleroi Airport (BSCA), reported “incidents” in the queues outside the terminal on Tuesday afternoon.
“Police officers were beaten as they tried to evacuate fainting passengers,” Hervé Fransens, the airport’s general secretary, told AFP.
Second Belgian airport
Consequence: the airport – known in particular for being the main continental base of the Irish low-cost airline Ryanair – decided to “suspend” its operations “on departure” on October 19.
“We ask departing passengers not to approach the airport. On the other hand, arriving passengers will be received normally,” BSCA stresses on its website. The airport sent passengers back to their airline to reschedule their trip.
According to Belgian media, Security Masters agents went on strike on Monday because BSCA Security, a subsidiary of the operator, decided to share the market for security checks on the site by calling in a second supplier.
On Tuesday, some 7,000 passengers were to catch a departing plane and 2,200 of them could not make it, according to Hervé Fransens.
Charleroi airport, which serves more than 190 destinations, most of them in the Mediterranean basin, has a traffic of eight million passengers a year. It is number two in Belgium behind Brussels-Zaventem.
Source: BFM TV
