Air strike, today black Sunday of low cost

A ‘black’ day, today, in the hot summer of air transport. In fact, the strikes proclaimed by the ENAV flight controllers and the staff of the low cost Ryanair, Malta Air, Crewlink, EasyJet and Volotea are confirmed. Compared to forecasts, the inconvenience will be more contained since the absences from work have been reduced to 4 hours following the intervention of the Guarantee Commission. But surely this stop that falls in the middle of the summer departures will complicate the vacationers’ plans a lot. All the more so if the turbulence in the Italian skies is added to that of the European skies hit by a flurry of cancellations and reductions in operations by airlines in trouble due to staff shortages in a phase of full restart of post-covid travel. Read also Arms crossed, therefore, today, from 14 to 18, of pilots and flight attendants of low cost airlines. “We hope to have concrete answers as soon as possible to ensure decent working conditions for workers, so as to avoid further inconvenience to passengers in this summer”, Filt Cgil and Uiltrasporti hope in confirming the protest. “After the strikes of the last 8 and 25 June – the unions underline – the Italian workers of Ryanair, Malta Air and Crewlink claim contractual and wage conditions in line with the national air transport contract and also water and food for the crews, often unable to get off the plane even for 14 consecutive hours and the cancellation of the wage cuts introduced to face a period of crisis that is no longer current. “Today, from 2 pm, four garrisons will also be held at the airports of Milan Malpensa, Bergamo Orio al Serio, Pisa and Rome Fiumicino. Uiltrasporti also confirms the strike of Easyjet and Volotea. “Despite the reduction of strike hours from 24 to 4 imposed by the Guarantee Commission for strikes, pilots and flight attendants of these companies will continue, in compliance with the rules, this new protest action given the persistence of the unacceptable conditions in which they are forced to work “, denounces the acronym s indacal. Pilots, flight attendants and even ‘radar men’. Today the ENAV flight controllers also stop for 4 hours from 14 to 18. “The national strike was called to protest above all against the heavy and chronic understaff in which the Authority is operating, especially at this particular moment of air traffic recovery “, underline Filt-cgil, Fit-Cisl and Uiltrasporti. “The now chronic shortage of personnel is no longer sustainable. The employment contract has expired for almost three years and the company, instead of negotiating any new regulatory institutes with the trade unions, reinterprets the existing rules in a unilateral and unacceptable way”, Ugl Transport by Air and Unica also state. Meanwhile, European airlines have canceled 15,788 flights scheduled for August due to strikes and staff shortages, accounting for 2% of their total schedule and 60% of global operations, according to a report by Cirium. aviation industry analysis company. In addition, airlines around the world recorded 25,378 flights canceled from their August schedules, which means the elimination of approximately 818 flights per day, 4.4 million unsold seats and less than 1% of the total schedule. . The Cirium report points out that the European continent is the most affected region due to the combination of a surge in demand, staff shortages and labor disputes that have led to a series of strikes. As for the airlines, Turkish Airlines is the carrier with the most cancellations in Europe, with 4,408 flights, half of them to Istanbul and a quarter to Russia. British Airways followed with 3,600 cancellations, easyJet (2,045), Lufthansa (1,888) and Wizz Air (1,256). In other parts of the world, Brazilian Azul canceled 2,133 flights, South Korea’s Korean Air withdrew 2,033, while India’s IndiGo canceled 2,030.