Charleroi Airport (CRL) latest news 2012

[crlhub]

In the Daily Telegraph they talked about +- 50 millions pounds penalty (if I'm not wrong)?But it will be a big loss of credibility for G4 with other potential customers as they showed they could not deliver what they promised.
Otherwise back to the main isue, it is simply normal that as CRL tripled almost his traffic(6.4 millions this year),it should have more police/border control agents as for BRU or any other airport.Thay have more non schengen destinations as we usually think at first(North Africa,Turkey and non schengen European destinations).
(I'm neither a CRL worker,or a union member and even less a policeman at crl. lol)

Fyi:http://www.charleroi-airport.com/passag ... index.html

[Conti764]

"There are no American tanks in Bagdad" - comical Ali, during the Kuwait/Iraq war. It's quite funny to see how some deny the facts or minimalize what happened. That some say that the passengers who have been interviewed have exaggerated or lied is extreme union nonsense.

Public servants have misused their duty for syndical purpose. And yet, some even whitewash this bullying action. Imagine you go to a car wash. When you want to leave, the guy lockes the door and says: "my boss hasn't paid me since last month. The door will now be closed for one hour". This is what happened: a flight from Dublin, which could be handled off in a normal and safe matter in 15 minutes, was done in 2 hours.

Passengers don't mind they have to wait. We're used to it. And we don't care, as long as there is a good reason for it. But this time, even the police union said that there would be a deliberate, long waiting time because this suits them in their social conflict. So don't use "safety" as argument: it wasn't.

Comparing this bullying action to the queues at Heathrow is also not correct. I know Heathrow quite well. Actually, for a previous job, I had to go there two times a week. During about tho years. The queue at the passport control was shorter and faster then in BRU. The queue at the hand luggage control was indeed always longer then in BRU, but the waiting time was shorter. But that is not relevant here. Public servants have used innocent passengers for a social conflict. Shame on them.

And finally: shame on those who support this action, only because they dislike bad news about their favorite airport Charleroi, or because they, as eagerly union members, sympathise with every syndical action.

First of all, police didn't hold anybody hostage, they just did their job the way it should. If waiting times increase tremendously, one might wonder how safe the current situation in normal circumstances is?
So, it is clear that there is a problem when police officers doing their job the way they should, results in abnormal waiting times. And that's right what the issue is.

I don't know the specific situation in CRL, but the officers at CRL are from the same division as those at BRU (and every other international airport at Belgium f.i. Liege, Antwerp, Ostend and even Kortrijk-Wevelgem), and there is an overall shortage of staff at all these airports. At BRU, waiting times at border control could be reduced tremendously if enough staff would be hired and infrastructure would be expanded and upgraded, since currently the police officers at passportcontrol do their jobs in insufficient, filthy booths and are way understaffed. Take into account that staff of tBAC is timing the passportcontrol and counting passengers passing in an hour and taking photographs, and that unsufficient flow is being reported to these officers superiors, and it doesn't take much to see why these officers get fed up with the whole situation.
If you see that at CRL passenger numbers doubled in 4 years and the police force wass extended with only 1 member you can ask yourself how the hell such thing is possible.
One difference between BRU and CRL is that at BRU you have two different police services, the one for the border control and the one for the execution of general policing (traffic, interventions, patrolling,...), while at CRL those two tasks are being performed by the same service, making influence of doubling pax numbers even higher.

Now you have actions at BRU and CRL, but at BRU negotiations have been going on for months without result. Doing their job the way it should be, with the result that passengers have to wait longer, is the only solution to have the government opening up their eyes.

Keep also in mind that police can't just go on strike, for obvious reasons. As a passenger I can understand to a certain level that it bother you having to wait longer, but as a civilian you should be more bothered by the fact police can't do everything they should a border control, resulting in more illegal immigration and more overall difficulties overall.

[airazurxtror]

If you see that at CRL passenger numbers doubled in 4 years and the police force wass extended with only 1 member you can ask yourself how the hell such thing is possible.

It may be that, four years ago, there were far too many policemen at CRL !
We speak of the border controls, that is to say checking the IC and passports of passengers to and from non-Schengen countries. Have the number of such passengers doubled ? I have not seen any statistics given here to ascertain it.
There are more flights to Marocco, but less flights to the UK and Ireland, for instance.

[cnc]

nobody with some figures? from what i know they have some peak moments but then again a lot of hours they have nothing todo aswell.
my girlfriend more then once told me the police officers where sleeping when they arrived in OST and pax needed passport control

[RoMax]

Not about the police problem, but also very related to CRL. The Walloon government will reduce the subsidies to their regional airports (CRL and LGG) to eventually stop them by 2020. Last year both airports got almost 61 million subsidies from the Walloon government.

This comes 'suprisingly' after the EU announced in March that they would reopen and expand their investigation towards the state aid CRL gets. The EU looks at the subsidies, the cheap marketing contracts that RYR signed with CRL, the huge reductions RYR gets at CRL,...

http://www.luchtvaartnieuws.nl/nl-NL/Ar ... ns_stoppen

So by 2020 RYR will have all their CRL based staff registrated in Belgium (means more costs) and CRL will get no more subsidies (probably resulting in less attractive agreements with RYR). This would finally mean an (almost) equal playing field for RYR/CRL and SN/BRU.

[Conti764]

If you see that at CRL passenger numbers doubled in 4 years and the police force wass extended with only 1 member you can ask yourself how the hell such thing is possible.

It may be that, four years ago, there were far too many policemen at CRL !
We speak of the border controls, that is to say checking the IC and passports of passengers to and from non-Schengen countries. Have the number of such passengers doubled ? I have not seen any statistics given here to ascertain it.
There are more flights to Marocco, but less flights to the UK and Ireland, for instance.

Contrary to BRU with its two services, besides passportcontrol, the police at CRL also does patroling, interventions,... And when you have 6 ml pax a year, or 2,8 ml makes a big difference.

[Conti764]

nobody with some figures? from what i know they have some peak moments but then again a lot of hours they have nothing todo aswell.
my girlfriend more then once told me the police officers where sleeping when they arrived in OST and pax needed passport control

OST is no CRL, let alone BRU. Especially in these times both CRL and BRU handle a lot of passengers who need passport control in and out of the country. I don't know the specific situation at CRL, but at BRU there is a big pax stream almost the entire day and especially during peak moments it is a burden to have the private (!) tBAC-company breahting down your neck.

[airazurxtror]

A solution has been found at CRL and the strike is over.


http://www.dhnet.be/breaking_news.phtml ... a&status=3

[sn26567]

Due to steeply increased airport taxes in Spanish airports, especially in Madrid and Barcelona, Ryanair will strongly reduce (-30%) its schedules to the two latter airports from November. This will also affect flights to/from Charleroi.

From Madrid, 11 destinations will be cancelled and frequencies to 24 other destinations (including CRL) will be reduced. In total, 253 weekly flights willl be cancelled carrying a total of 1.3 million pax per year.

From Barcelona, 4 destinations will be vancelled and frequencies for 22 other destinations (including CRL) will be reduced. In total, 240 weekly flights will be cancelled, carrying 1 million passengers a year.

According to Ryanair, this will cost 1300 jobs in Madrid and 1000 jobs in Barcelona... But many of the routes which have been cut are holiday destinations, which would normally be reduced anyway during the slower winter season.

[kleineboy]

Ryanair moves its Lithuania flights to Charleroi from Kaunas to Vilnius at 28/10/2012

source http://www.goedkoopvliegenclub.nl/nieuws.html

[airazurxtror]

SAVE, who are shareholders in Brussels South Charleroi, operate Venezia Marco Polo and Treviso Canova, will take over Trieste Ronchi dei Legionari from the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region.

http://www.agi.it/trieste/notizie/20120 ... oporto_fvg

[crlhub]

+ 700.000 pax in 08/2012 + 19.2% increase in traffic versus 2011:


http://www.7sur7.be/7s7/fr/1536/Economi ... eroi.dhtml

http://www.rtbf.be/info/regions/detail_ ... id=7837233

[stefanel]

Does anyone know why Ryanair is giving up the Memmingen route so quickly (no more flights as from November). For once that we had a German destination, I'm very sad!

[jan_olieslagers]

Can't be sure, but the obious explanation is "insufficient revenue".
No wonder, to me: who wants to travel to Memmingen anyway? And those that do can easily drive: it is neither a difficult ride nor very far.

[stefanel]

well, for one I don't have a car, and for two I think 50 minute-flight comparing to 8-h drive is a big difference, esp. in terms of money since this flight was always at max. 12€ one way.
And Bayern is very touristic and nice, Munich was 125km away. To me it looked like a great idea... I hope they try Bremen or another German destination. Anyways, I suppose they open routes based on market studies so I'm surprised they would just resign after a couple of months...

[airazurxtror]

The 3 weekly flights from Charleroi to Verona will be cancelled from 12 october 2012.
Ryanair has cancelled its 11 routes and 39 weekly flights to Verona, following a dispute over the terms of their contract with that airport.

[regi]

Can't be sure, but the obious explanation is "insufficent revenue".
No wonder, to me: who wants to travel to Memmingen anyway? And those that do can easily drive: it is neither a difficult ride nor very far.

See Altenburg.

[sn26567]

Ryanair adds another daily flight between Dublin & Brussels Charleroi from 07NOV12 ahead of Ireland's 6 month Presidency of European Council.

Source: The HUB Routes

[airtrainer]

Ryanair adds another daily flight between Dublin & Brussels Charleroi from 07NOV12 ahead of Ireland's 6 month Presidency of European Council.

Now that's very good news, I missed the daytrips to DUB

[airazurxtror]

I missed the daytrips to DUB

Same for me, indeed !
Last daytrip to DUB was during winter 2010/2011...