Stewardesses of the largest budget airline carrier in Europe Ryanairhave 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 throughout 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 protest events affected the minimum number of flights — previous strikes a few weeks ago allegedly affected less than one percent of departures, so they expect minimal disruption now.
However, failures can be caused not only by the refusal of Ryanair employees to go to work. Shortage of staff in Air Traffic Control and airports across Europe — another major cause of schedule disruption. Passengers whose flights are rescheduled or canceled due to lack of ATC personnel will be notified of their rights via email or SMS.
Meanwhile, EasyJet employees are also set to stage a series of strikes in Spain due to a wage dispute, promotions are scheduled for 15–17 and 29–31 July.
About 450 workers are expected to take to the streets at Barcelona's El Prat airport, as well as at Malaga and Palma de Mallorca.
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 suffer, for example, to Malaga, Palma, Barcelona and back.
Spain — not the only country to face problems at airports: passengers at the airport
Meanwhile, London Heathrow asked passengers not to arrive more than three hours before departure due to “panic”; in the airport.
