Two-day strike called at Madrid airport

EAGER travellers passing through Madrid at the end of the month may find themselves plunged into chaos now that air traffic controllers at the city’s Barajas airport have announced that they will be striking for two days, on June 28 and June 29. The news no doubt comes much to the dismay of the thousands of people who have flights booked in Madrid on either of these two days, which are smack dab in one of the busiest travel periods of the year. 

A similar incident occurred six years ago when the air traffic controllers shut down Spanish airspace over Barajas for a 24-hour block of time. The strike resulted in very long waits and hectic situations for huge numbers of people. 

The group behind the strike is the Servicio de Direccion de Plataforma (SDP), which manages over 50 per cent of the air traffic at the airport. The 47 members of the group have indicated that they will be striking as a result of job insecurity, and have launched criticisms at the company Ineco, which is controlled by Spain’s transport ministry, for making changes to their employment contracts.