Plane strike, disruption for 250,000 passengers: that’s what will happen

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Saturday 15 July was a black dot day in airports from North to South with the strike by ground staff for eight hours. From 10 to 18 the workers of handling, loading and unloading of luggage, and check-in workers cross their arms. The protest was proclaimed by the trade unions Filt Cgil, Fit-Cisl, Uiltrasporti and Ugl Ta to request the renewal of the sector contract, which had expired for six years. The Minister of Transport and Infrastructure, Matteo Salvini, said that a table between companies and trade unions was convened for “next week”.

At Fiumicino airport, the same unions also organized a three-hour garrison, from 10 to 13, “to respond unitedly to an action to cancel the strike attempted by the Minister of Transport”. There will be “250 thousand passengers departing” from Italian airports who risk being grounded due to the strike, which has so far led to the “cancellation of about a thousand flights”, says Codacons.

At Fiumicino airport, 130-140 flights should be cancelled, while 12 intercontinental flights are insured and all flights departing from 7 to 10, i.e. the protection zone, informs ENAC, explaining that domestic flights are also insured arriving at the various Italian airports that “departed before the start of the strike”, therefore the arrival of all intercontinental flights, the departure of intercontinental flights: at least one flight for each continent. And then the flights to the islands: at least one connection from various Italian airports. At the Naples airport, 118 flights have been cancelled: 59 arriving and 59 departing, out of a total of 284 originally scheduled flights, communicates Gesac, the management company of the Neapolitan airport. In Sardinia, almost 50 flights have been canceled so far: Cagliari has canceled 28 connections, Olbia 15 and Alghero 4.

Among the airlines, Ita Airways “was forced to cancel 133 domestic and international flights”, informs the company on its website. But he explains that he has “activated an extraordinary plan” to limit passenger inconvenience, rebooking as many travelers as possible on the first available flights, therefore “40% will be able to fly on the same day”. The airport strike will also be joined by the unrest of the pilots of Malta Air, which operates Ryanair flights, from 12 to 16 and of the pilots and flight attendants of Vueling from 10 to 18. In the case of Malta Air, the protest was proclaimed by Filt Cgil, Uiltrasporti and Ugl Trasporto Aereo “following the application by Ryanair of trade union agreements of a contractual nature, totally unsatisfactory without the company having opened a discussion”, explain the three trade unions.

On the other hand, Filt CGIL proclaimed the stop to Vueling “due to the company’s lack of willingness to develop healthy and constructive industrial relations with the trade union organization most representative of the company’s workers’ needs”. And the summer of passion for air transport threatens to spread to London as well. The Unite union, on behalf of a thousand baggage handlers and employees of various ground services at Gatwick airport, announced an eight-day strike spread between the end of July and August.