Ryanair share: Ryanair wants to strike several Spanish airports in July – further problems in European air traffic

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The cabin crew of the low-cost airline Ryanair want to go on strike for another twelve days in July for better working conditions, as the responsible Spanish unions USO and Sitcpla announced on Saturday. Numerous airports are affected by the Ryanair strikes. Cabin crew in Spain went on strike at the end of June and also between Thursday and Saturday. The airline “does not comply with court decisions and laws,” the USO said. Minister of Labor Yolanda Daz should intervene.

The cabin crew of competitor easyJet also stopped working in Spain for a total of nine days between the end of June and the end of July. In the case of the British airline, the cabin crew are demanding significantly higher salaries and a limitation on flight times, as is the case in other countries.

Warning strikes at the Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle airport in Paris at the weekend again led to cancellations. On Saturday, between 7 a.m. and 2 p.m., 20 percent of the planned take-offs and landings were canceled, according to the airport. As early as Friday, 17 percent of take-offs and landings were canceled. The strikers are demanding higher wages and better working conditions because of rising inflation.

At the Scandinavian airline SAS, on the other hand, a planned pilot strike has again been postponed. The airline announced that a new deadline of 12 noon on Monday had been set for the arbitration attempts. Things are moving forward, but there is still a long way to go, said SAS negotiator Marianne Herns, according to Danish broadcaster DR. The strike of 900 pilots originally announced for Wednesday was postponed to Saturday night. The SAS management and the Swedish, Norwegian and Danish pilots have been negotiating a collective agreement for weeks.

In order to deal with the chaos in British air traffic, the British government is relaxing regulations on take-off and landing rights at airports. The airlines can now cancel connections and do without the so-called slots without having to fear losing these expensive take-off rights. This is intended to enable a “more realistic” flight plan. The airlines must announce their cancellations by next Friday.

Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary blamed “the catastrophe” of Brexit for the lack of staff at British airports. Since Britain left the EU, it has become difficult for airlines to hire EU workers, O’Leary told the Financial Times newspaper.

Air traffic problems in Europe continue

At Germany’s largest airport in Frankfurt, the current handling problems are now also having consequences for air freight traffic. A measure to stabilize the entire system is that, in addition to passenger and individual cargo airlines, flights are moved or canceled from peak times to times with less traffic, a spokeswoman for the airport told the German Press Agency on Saturday. With a view to the lack of staff, the handling of passenger and freight aircraft is being looked at where the need is greatest.

A spokeswoman for the company told dpa that the operations of the freight airline Lufthansa Cargo had been “sensitively” disrupted by the lack of staff in Frankfurt. On Friday there were four flight cancellations for freight connections and some delays. In order to take the load off the system, an embargo has now also been placed on various animal species until July 10th.

Last week, the federal government promised a short-term remedy for the shortage of staff at German airports: it wants to make it possible for thousands of temporary foreign workers to enter the country.

In view of a number of flight cancellations and delays, the Ministry of Consumer Protection is considering reviewing advance payment practices. According to a spokeswoman, the department of Federal Minister Steffi Lemke (Greens) appealed to the airlines to proactively fulfill their “legal obligation to reimburse within seven days”, as the “Welt am Sonntag” reported. “Otherwise you will have to review the advance payment practice in its current form.” In the practice of prepayment, passengers would have a high risk. The general manager of the Federal Association of the German Aviation Industry, Matthias von Randow, pointed out that every traveler already has the choice of booking early and thus taking advantage of the early booking discounts, or booking and paying at very short notice before departure.

But there are also chaos beneficiaries: The cancellation of domestic German flights increases passenger numbers at Deutsche Bahn. “In the current situation, more and more people are using the train instead of the plane in Germany,” said a spokesman for the “Spiegel”. According to the report, Sprinter trains along German domestic routes are booked up 40 percent more, with the airlines buying many tickets to replace canceled flights.

/er/DP/nas

MADRID (dpa-AFX)

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