Following the closure of the Belgian airspace on 12 April and the numerous statements circulating in the press and in the social media, we would like to share with you some factual information reported by the Belgian Guild of Air Traffic Controllers (BGATC) and by operational Air Traffic Controllers:

• On 12 April, several controllers of the afternoon shift reported unfit to work, which is a legal requirement for any ATCO unfit to exercise his/her function. This led to understaffing of the CANAC control centre and the resulting closure of the Belgian airspace.

• Belgocontrol suffers from structural understaffing.

• Long-term recruitment policy and staff training are questionable.

• Several breakdowns of the Thales Eurocat radar and communication system have occurred in the past months.

• The radar system is not reliable due to recurrent frozen or blanked screens.

Yesterday, BeCA wrote a letter to Mr Bellot, the new Minister of Transport, to notify our concerns and ask him to bring around the table all the stakeholders, in order to set up together long-term coherent and efficient policies and procedures. This will allow Belgian Air Traffic Controllers to pursue efficiently the safety tasks we can expect from an Air Traffic Center in the heart of Europe.

We will also publish later today a Press Release expressing our concerns and demanding a quick resolution of the issues.

The BeCA Executive Committee