All flights to and from Greek airports will be canceled on Thursday, March 16, 2023, as air traffic controllers and civil aviation workers participate in a 24-hour nationwide strike over the deadliest train disaster in the country’s history.
The general strike, organized by the country’s largest private and public sector unions, is the latest in a series of protests against the conservative government and political system, which has repeatedly ignored union calls for safety measures, Reuters reported.
All flights will be suspended on March 16 from 00:01 to midnight local time (similarly to Kyiv time). Exceptions will be only overflights, as well as emergency and search and rescue flights, a representative of the Civil Aviation Authority told Reuters.
Hundreds of flights are expected to be disrupted at approximately 40 airports across the country.
It is noted that the ships will also remain in ports due to the strike.
Collision of trains to Greece on February 28
On February 28, 2023, a passenger train from Athens to Thessaloniki with more than 350 people on board collided head-on with a freight train traveling in the opposite direction on the same section of track in the municipality of Thembi. As a result of the accident, 57 people died, dozens were injured.
The accident sparked mass protests across Greece, as railway unions had repeatedly called for higher safety standards in the industry before the disaster, but the authorities ignored all calls.