Planes grounded at Brussels Charleroi airport as strike continues
Attempts by the regional Wallonia government in southern Belgium to bring in private workers to reopen the airport after the strike, over privatization, began on Friday had not yet succeeded, an airport spokesman said.
"There is no supervisor to oversee these workers and therefore the airport cannot reopen," he told AFP.
The strikers were security guards with civil service status under the Walloon region government which wants to transfer them to private, though subsidized, airport management firms.
Ryanair, the main operator at the short- to medium-haul airport, announced that it would not operate any flights in or out of the airport until Monday at the earliest.
On Friday, Ryanair brought court action over the "illegal and unjustified" strike.
The court ruled that the action was unfounded and ordered Charleroi and the similarly affected Liege-Bierset airport to the east, to be reopened.
Transport Minister for Belgium's Southern Wallonia Region Andre Antoine announced on Friday his intention to reopen the airports as soon as possible with private staff brought in to break the strike.
"I don't want thousands of people, airline customers, to be taken hostage," he said on Belgian television.
Some flights were operating on Saturday from the Liege airport, which handles a lot of freight flights.
All flights at the two airports in the Wallonia region were canceled or diverted on Friday, with passengers, offered a refund or later flight, complaining of a lack of information as the queues lengthened.
Ryanair accused the strikers of "treating the traveling public with utter contempt".
Apart from Ryanair, fellow low-cost carriers Wizzair, Jet4You and Onair also had to divert flights to French airports in Lille and Paris as well as Belgium's main airport in Brussels.
Airport management advised passengers not to turn up at Charleroi before checking their flight on the website or phoning the airport.