Spanish airline, Air Europa, has cancelled 114 flights from its scheduled itinerary for tomorrow due to a new strike being supported by its pilots until June 2nd.
Passengers affected by the cancellations are being offered the option to change their travel date or destination or receive a voucher for the ticket amount. One of the affected routes is the connection between Madrid and Malaga Airport.
The Spanish Airline Pilots’ Union (Sepla) has called for eight new strike days for Air Europa pilots on May 22nd, 23rd, 25th, 26th, 29th, and 30th, as well as June 1st and 2nd. This comes after four strikes earlier this month resulted in the cancellation of 68 flights.
During these eight new days of protest, a total of 114 flights will be cancelled, affecting domestic routes connecting Madrid to Bilbao, La Coruña, Palma de Mallorca, Vigo, and Málaga, as well as international routes to Rome (Fiumicino), Milan (Malpensa), Paris-Orly, Porto, and Lisbon, in addition to the Barcelona-Palma route.
In the first five strike days and on June 1st, the airline will not operate 14 flights each day, while on May 30th, there will be 18 cancelled services, and on the last day (June 2nd), a total of 12.
The company is offering three alternatives to affected customers. The first option is to change their travel date within the next 30 days, in the same cabin class and on the same route. The other two options are to change to a different route operated by Air Europa within 3 days before or after the original flight date or to retain the ticket value as credit for a future purchase to any airport served by the airline.
According to Sepla, the strike is in response to “tension and labour conflict generated by Air Europa’s management, playing with workers’ rights and disguising proposals that actually result in a real loss of acquired labour rights under the IV Collective Bargaining Agreement.” The union believes that “acceding to the company’s pressures would have resulted in worse working and salary conditions in the short and medium term.”
The pilots “feel discriminated against by the company, as they are the only labour group affected by the airline’s actions in various salary revision negotiations.” In fact, while the conflict with the pilots continues, the negotiation between Air Europa and the unions representing its cabin crew members has reached a successful outcome. A preliminary agreement was reached on May 18th, which includes a cumulative salary increase of 11.93% over three years (2023-2025) and will now be subject to worker ratification.
