A thousand flights departing from and arriving at Italian airports have been canceled due to a strike by ground staff demanding the renewal of their collective agreement (AFP/Archives/Andreas SOLARO)
A thousand flights departing from and arriving at Italian airports were canceled on Saturday due to a strike by ground staff demanding the renewal of their collective agreement.
In Belgium, a total of 120 flights departing from and arriving at Charleroi airport are canceled on Saturday and Sunday due to a strike by Ryanair pilots over their working conditions.
In Italy, around 250,000 domestic and international travelers are affected by the stoppage of handling and check-in agents scheduled between 10:00 a.m. (08:00 GMT) and 6:00 p.m. at the call of an inter-union.
They are demanding the signing of a new collective agreement, which expired six years ago.
At Fiumicino-Leonardo Da Vinci airport in Rome, around 200 flights were canceled, notably to Copenhagen, Stockholm, Barcelona or Palma de Mallorca, as well as Palermo or Catania in Sicily.
The companies Malta Air, which operates routes on behalf of Ryanair, Ita Airways (formerly Alitalia), and Vueling, whose pilots have decided to join the movement, are particularly affected.
Nearly 150 flights were canceled at the two Milan airports, Linate and Malpensa, around thirty at Turin-Caselle, as many at Palermo.
Transport Minister Matteo Salvini called on the “common sense” of the strikers not to prolong their movement and “not to harm millions of other workers and tourists”.
In Belgium, some 10,000 passengers who were to take off from Charleroi and about as many who were to land there are affected this weekend by the social movement, airport management told AFP.
Ryanair pilots based in the country criticize the company for not wanting to respect a collective agreement providing for rest days in exchange for wage cuts granted in 2020 at the time of the Covid-19 crisis.
The pilots’ unions accuse the Irish company of not respecting Belgian legislation and of prospering thanks to “social dumping” which creates unfair competition with other companies.
© 2023 AFP
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