INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
flights below 8,000 metres on Wednesday as a national strike threatened to bring the European country to a standstill.With "no certainty" on
how many controllers would be following the strike movement, Belgium's Skeyes air traffic control agency said it was "forced to prohibit"
aircraft flying below 8,000 metres altitude -- the area controlled by Skeyes -- will be allowed to fly over the country, Dominique Dehaene,
the company's spokesman, told AFP.Government, military and emergency flights will be allowed, he added.Above 8,000 metres, a control centre
in the Dutch city of Maastricht controls aircraft flying over Belgian territory.Skeyes was not able to say how many flights or how many
passengers would be affected.A general strike called by three unions, which are calling for higher wages, is expected to paralyse Belgium on
Wednesday.Brussels, home to NATO, will be hosting a meeting of defence ministers that day, with officials from throughout the transatlantic
military alliance converging on the city."We have no indication of any impact of the strike on the meeting," a NATO official told
AFP.Charleroi airport, the second largest in Belgium and a local hub for low-cost giant Ryanair, had already announced its closure.Belgium's
Brussels Airlines has cancelled all its 222 flights.The German carrier TUI fly will operate its scheduled Belgian flights from the nearest
French and Dutch airports.(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by TheIndianSubcontinent staff and is published from a
