Travel trouble for flyers

Ongoing industrial action by French air traffic controllers has resulted in flight chaos at Palma airport.

By 5pm on Tuesday (July 5) a total of 29 flights had been cancelled in the Balearics, the majority operated by the low-cost Spanish airline Vueling. Flights were grounded in Palma and in Ibiza, with those having to pass through French air space hit the hardest as the strike continued. 

Various flights to the UK were cancelled, as were services to Scandinavia, Switzerland and Russia. For those lucky enough not to have their flight cancelled, there were long delays experienced.

The actions come at the start of the summer when it is reported that Palma airport is expected to handle an all-time record number of passengers this summer. On Tuesday a total of 821 flight movements were scheduled and the airport handled 138,639 passengers.

More than 8,000 passengers were also affected by 46 cancellations at Vueling’s home airport, El Prat in Barcelona. The airline, owned by IAG and a sister company to British Airways, has blamed the problems on “operational difficulties.”

All those affected were offered alternative flights or a refund if they no longer wished to fly.