The flight crew strike of the Ryanair company in Belgium, which began on Friday, continues during the New Year weekend, with around fifteen planes still grounded on Saturday.
A total of 42 Ryanair flights were canceled on Saturday departing from or arriving at Charleroi airport, Belgium's second for passenger traffic, Philippe Verdonck, president of the airport, told AFP.
On Friday, 48 flights had been canceled, and Ryanair plans for Sunday the cancellation of 38 flights.
Some 22,000 travelers should be affected by this strike over the three days, said Philippe Verdonck.
The Irish company operates 15 planes from Belgium and the strike was not expected to impact planes based in other countries.
Part of Ryanair's Belgian traffic therefore continued to be handled by these foreign-based aircraft.
Ryanair employees in Belgium have already gone on strike several times this year.
In particular, they accuse the company of illegally pressuring employees to work from time to time at other sites across Europe, particularly in Dublin.
Read alsoThe king of low cost, Ryanair, finally returns to profits
After having called on the 450 or so hostesses and stewards of the low-cost carrier in Belgium to stop work from December 30 to January 1, the unions are planning a new strike for the weekend of January 7 and 8.
Charleroi airport, which serves more than 190 destinations, mostly in the Mediterranean basin, boasts traffic of eight million passengers per year.
He is number two in Belgium behind Brussels-Zaventem.
