The industrial dispute has been orchestrated by Spain’s UGT union, involving workers from Azul Handling – Ryanair’s own ground handling division – who are employed at 12 of the airline’s Spanish hubs
Budget airline Ryanair is said to have axed flights to beloved Spanish holiday hotspots during the summer holidays as an extended baggage handler strike threatens to wreak havoc on operations until the end of the year. They have since said that there will be no disruption to their services while the strikes take place.
Additional chaos was anticipated throughout Ryanair’s entire Spanish operation – despite the carrier insisting disruption would be kept to a minimum. The news follows the airline’s cancellation of over 800 flights due to ‘conflict’ last month.
The industrial dispute has been orchestrated by Spain’s UGT union, involving workers from Azul Handling – Ryanair’s own ground handling division – who are employed at 12 of the airline’s Spanish hubs.
The initial walkout is scheduled for Friday, August 15, with subsequent strikes planned for every Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday through to Wednesday, December 31. Three busy periods will be hit by the action – 5am to 9am, noon to 3pm, and 9pm to midnight.
The ongoing stoppages could impact services at Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Alicante, Malaga, Seville, Ibiza, Palma de Mallorca, Girona, Tenerife South, Lanzarote, and Santiago de Compostela.
The union states the strikes are a response to what it characterises as “exploitative working conditions”. Union representatives alleged that Azul Handling had consistently disregarded their demands.
Jose Manuel Perez Grande, federal secretary of the FeSMC-UGT Air Union, slammed the company for pursuing “a strategy of precariousness and pressure on the workforce that violates basic labour rights and systematically ignores union demands”.
While Spanish legislation requires minimum service levels during strike action, the practical implications of this requirement remain unclear.
A Ryanair spokesperson insisted: “Due to Spain’s minimum service legislation during peak summer months, we do not expect any disruption to our operation as a result of these strikes (by the UGT union who represent less than 20% of Azul staff) in our third-party handler in Spain.”
However, some travellers claim to have already begun receiving alerts about alterations to their travel plans.
The carrier has informed impacted passengers they can choose between full refunds, travel vouchers, or rebooking onto different flights.
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