Major European airport cancels all flights due to strike

ONE AIRPORT had to cancel all flights due to strikes.

Berlin Brandenburgh Airport (BER) staff will be laid off tomorrow, meaning most flights will be grounded.

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Around 300 flights are expected to take off and land on Wednesday, and around 35,000 passengers are affected by the cancellations.

A spokesman for the airport, which only opened in 2020, said it was likely no flights would be operated.

They said: “In this situation, the airport company must assume that no regular passenger flights can take place at BER that day.”

A message on the airport’s website confirms: “Due to the announced warning strike at Berlin Brandenburg Airport, no passenger flights are possible on Wednesday, January 25, 2023.

“The airport company officially informed its partners such as the airlines, ground handling service providers, security companies and companies based at the airport in the evening.”

The Ver.di trade union, which is behind the strikes, has called on airport staff to withdraw from a wage dispute.

Both flight safety and ground services employees are said to be on strike.

Passengers should contact their airline before they travel tomorrow, with airlines such as easyJet and Ryanair being the main carriers from the UK.

Some travelers are already affected by the cancellations.

One easyJet passenger wrote on Twitter: “My flight from Amsterdam to Berlin tomorrow has been cancelled! I was rebooked on a flight the day after, but that doesn’t work for me.”

Another traveler tweeted: “My flight from Berlin to Brisbane was canceled less than 24 hours before departure and I can’t find any information or help from the airline on what my next steps are – what should I do?”

A third, whose flight to Berlin was cancelled, wrote: “This is crazy, how do I get home?”

A Ryanair passenger said the airline charged them £250 to rebook their canceled flights, calling it “scandalous”.

Here’s what you should do if your flight is cancelled.

In the UK, a popular airline is halting all flights from Cardiff Airport this month after Wizz Air confirmed it will close its Welsh base.

Wizz Air was also once the largest operator at the now closed Doncaster Sheffield Airport but withdrew in June 2022 leaving only TUI flights.

The UK airport closed permanently in October 2022.

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