Ryanair and EasyJet employees are dissatisfied with wages and working conditions. On the eve of Tuesday, July 12, a whole series of strikes began in Spain.
Flight attendants from Europe’s largest low-cost carrier Ryanair have been on strike at 10 airports across the country since Tuesday, July 12. The end of the strike is scheduled for Friday, July 15, after which a decision will be made on the following dates: from July 18-21 to July 25-28.
The refusal of crew members to go to work will affect flights from 10 cities across Spain, including Madrid, Malaga, Barcelona, Alicante, Seville, Palma, Valencia, Girona, Santiago de Compostela, and Ibiza.
This summer, Ryanair has already had to deal with strikes in Spain, as well as in Belgium, France, Italy, and Portugal.
At the same time, the strikers claim that the protests have affected the minimum number of flights – previous strikes, which took place a few weeks ago, allegedly affected less than one percent of flights, so now they expect minimal disruptions.
However, failures can be caused not only by the refusal of Ryanair employees to go to work. The shortage of staff at Air Traffic Control and airports across Europe is another major cause of schedule disruption. Passengers whose flights will be rescheduled or canceled due to a lack of ATC personnel will be notified of their rights by email or SMS.
Meanwhile, EasyJet employees are also set to hold a series of strikes in Spain over a wage dispute, with actions scheduled for July 15-17 and July 29-31.
Some 450 workers are expected to take to the streets at Barcelona’s El Prat Airport, as well as Malaga and Palma de Mallorca airports.
The unions have scheduled another meeting with the airline for Wednesday to try to resolve the issue before strikes begin. However, it is hardly necessary to wait for the parties to agree.
EasyJet said at the same time that it plans to operate all of its flights regardless of the strike, although some of them may be affected, for example, to Malaga, Palma, Barcelona, and back.
Spain is not the only country that has experienced problems at airports: passengers at the airport
Meanwhile, London’s Heathrow asked passengers not to arrive more than three hours before departure due to “panic” at the airport.