On 30 January, the Belgian airspace was temporarily closed after a technical issue with the air traffic controllers’ Skeyes computer system.
The technical issue and the closure of the airspace started at approximately 3:00 pm and lasted a little over an hour. When air traffic controller Skeyes became aware of the problem, all flights present in the Belgian airspace at that moment and an altitude below 7.500 meters were redirected to neighbouring countries thanks to a backup system. As all flights above 7.500 meters are controlled by Eurocontrol, nothing changed as to that regard.
“This was done in a safe way using a back-up system,” Skeyes spokesperson Kurt Verwilligen commented.
During the airspace closure, no flights were thus able to take off from or land at the airports of Antwerp, Ostend, Charleroi, Liège or Brussels Airport. This caused multiple delays and a flight from Brussels to Munich in Germany had to be cancelled.
🚨 Belgian Airspace Shutdown 🚨
— AirNav Radar (@AirNavRadar) January 30, 2025
On January 30, 2025, Belgium's ATC experienced a 'complete computer failure', temporarily closing airspace and grounding and rerouting flights at BRU, ANR, OST, CRL, and LGG.
Air traffic is gradually resuming.
🔴 Live map:… pic.twitter.com/oo9ZCbpmci
“Due to a technical problem with the air traffic controller, air traffic in Belgium was temporarily suspended this afternoon and is now slowly being resumed,” said Brussels Airport spokesperson Ihsane Chioua Lekhli. “Some flights were delayed, from 20 minutes to one hour and two flights were diverted to Lille airport. We’ll inform our passengers and now the situation is gradually stabilising.”
A little after 4:00 pm, the Skeyes computer system was rebooted and became functional once again. So far, it is not clear what exactly caused the failure but according to the traffic controller, it wasn’t due to a hack or virus.
“We are back in business,” said Skeyes spokesperson Kurt Verwilligen. “The system is operational again and is stable. Air traffic can gradually restart.”
Delays lasted for a little while longer, with Brussels Airport recommending passengers to check their flight information before heading to the airport.
UPDATE – Air traffic in Belgium almost to full capacity
— Brussels Airport (@BrusselsAirport) January 30, 2025
After the technical problem at air traffic control this afternoon, air traffic in Belgium is now getting back to full capacity. There may still be slight flight delays, so we recommend following your flight information >… pic.twitter.com/eXcmZs8OBR
During the airspace closure, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico was heading to a meeting with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Energy Commissioner Dan Jørgensen in Brussels. The airplane carrying him had to turn around and head back to Slovakia due to the disruption.
Since he returned to power in 2023, Prime Minister Robert Fico’s pro-Russian views have been clashing with the European mainstream. Not only has he vowed to block Ukraine from joining NATO but he also plans to pressure Ukraine to reopen the pipelines carrying Russian supplies.
