Ryanair, an Irish budget airline, has declared that it will be cancelling all flights operated by Belgian staff this coming weekend due to a union strike of its cabin crew.
On Wednesday, the airline stated that many flights from April 22 to 24 scheduled to depart from Brussels International Airport and Charleroi Airport would no longer go ahead as planned; this was confirmed by Hans Elsen of the trade union behind the action ACV Puls.
“Respect, fair pay and a staffing service worthy of the name are what the Ryanair cabin crew is striking for. And with success. Because of the great willingness of the staff to take action, Ryanair has to cancel all flights,” he wrote on Twitter.
Elsen had previously told that, although the business is once again prospering following the Covid-19 pandemic, it fails to invest in the human treatment of and acceptable working conditions for its cabin crew.
Some 650 in Belgium, Ryanair staff announced a possible strike at the start of this month, following another failed consultation between unions and management. The company continued to sell tickets for these flights even after the strike action was announced.
In its statement, Ryanair said that “despite its ongoing efforts to negotiate with our Belgian cabin crew union, CNE, they have decided to abandon negotiations and instead proceed with pointless unilateral strike action at Charleroi and Zaventem airports in Belgium this weekend.”
“CNE claims they want to ‘teach’ Ryanair a lesson but, regrettably, it will be Ryanair’s customers who are disrupted and impacted by these unnecessary strikes,” the statement read, adding that it has “regrettably been forced to cancel a number of flights to/from Charleroi and Zaventem.”
“This is clearly very frustrating news and is a direct result of CNE abandoning negotiations and taking unilateral action to disrupt passengers’ plans with this totally unnecessary action. These disruptions are completely beyond our control and we sincerely apologize for any inconvenience caused.”
