No. Airport workers in Spain are NOT going on strike

Contrary to reports in the UK press, airport workers in Spain are NOT going on strike for 25 days in September, October, November and December.  Yesterday’s headlines, claiming “air strike misery for passengers”, have appeared for no good reason causing unnecessary concern to holidaymakers and travellers to Spain and the Canary Islands.

Reports that members of three Spanish workers’ unions representing AENA staff at Spanish airports have voted for industrial action and widespread strikes are “incorrect.”

Media outlets have got it wrong by misinterpreting the ongoing Ryanair cabin crew dispute in Spain, the easyJet pilots strike, and a 10-day dispute with Iberia staff, and have caused panic, especially for those travelling after the summer holidays, during October half term, and further ahead to the busy Christmas and New Year period.

The Unión Sindical Obrera (USO) has confirmed that the reports were unfounded and that “there is no call for strikes at Spanish airports”, going on to point out that industrial action has been confirmed only by Spanish workers at Ryanair, Iberia Express cabin crew and easyJet pilots.

How have Ryanair cabin crew strikes affected flights?
The strikes that are happening are by Spain based cabin crews who want fairer working conditions, and take place every week from Monday to Thursday, have resulted in numerous cancellations and delays at Spanish airports, but these are primarily domestic flights with very few international or UK flights affected at all.

According to USO, last week’s strike action resulted in eight cancelled flights, 1,138 delays, 18 dismissed Ryanair workers based at Barcelona and Santiago de Compostela airports and more than 150 notices of disciplinary action issued by the airline to striking employees.

A spokesperson from Ryanair said: “These two tiny unions, who represent only a handful of our Spanish cabin crew, have held a number of poorly supported “strikes” in June and July which have had little or no impact on Ryanair’s flights to or from Spain. Ryanair expects that these latest threatened strikes, which involve only a handful of our Spanish cabin crew, will have zero impact on our Spanish flights or schedules in August, September, or the rest of the year.”

A separate strike by SEPLA, which represents easyJet pilots in Spain, is set to take place for three days this weekend, from Saturday 27th- Monday 29th August. It will be the final of three planned 72-hour walk-outs by easyJet pilots this month, as negotiations over working conditions and contracts continue. Again this is not expected to impact UK flights.