Passengers face ‘indefinite’ Easter holiday strike chaos at airports in Spain

AIR PASSENGERS in Spain are facing the threat of massive Easter holiday flight disruption if a strike called by unions in Spain goes ahead.

All 46 Aena airports and heliports would be affected by the union action – including those that serve to key holiday destinations of the Costa del Sol, Costa Blanca, Balearic and Canary Islands.

The USE and UGT unions, that represent around 60,000 ground handling staff, have called for a walkout by workers from April 20 – for an indefinite period – if their pay and rights of workers demands are not met.

A strike by this group of workers would likely cause long queues and delays to flights which could lead to a large number of cancellations.

The peak Easter week is expected to see around five million passengers travelling and 32,500 flights scheduled to operate across the Aena-managed airports.

It is the third time in less than a year that unions a strike and the first one, at the end of July 2018, was averted by negotiations.

The full Aena airport and heliport network in Spain is:

• A Coruña (LCG)
• Albacete (ABC)
• Algeciras (AEI)
• Alicante-Elche (ALC)
• Almería (LEI)
• Asturias (OVD)
• Badajoz (BJZ)
• Barcelona-El Prat (BCN)
• Bilbao (BIO)
• Burgos (RGS)
• Ceuta (JCU)
• Córdoba (ODB)
• El Hierro (VDE)
• Fuerteventura (FUE)
• Girona-Costa Brava (GRO)
• Gran Canaria (LPA)
• Granada-Jaén F.G.L. (GRX)
• Huesca-Pirineos (HSK)
• Ibiza (IBZ)
• Jerez (XRY)
• La Gomera (GMZ)
• La Palma (SPC)
• Lanzarote (ACE)
• León (LEN)
• Logroño-Agoncillo (RJL)
• Madrid-Barajas Adolfo Suárez (MAD)
• Madrid-Cuatro Vientos (LECU)
• Málaga-Costa del Sol (AGP)
• Melilla (MLN)
• Menorca (MAH)
• Murcia-San Javier (MJV)
• Palma de Mallorca (PMI)
• Pamplona (PNA)
• Reus (REU)
• Sabadell (QSA)
• Salamanca (SLM)
• San Sebastián (EAS)
• Santander-Seve Ballesteros (SDR)
• Santiago (SCQ)
• Sevilla (SVQ)
• Son Bonet (LESB)
• Tenerife Norte (TFN)
• Tenerife Sur (TFS)
• Valencia (VLC)
• Valladolid (VLL)
• Vigo (VGO)
• Vitoria (VIT)
• Zaragoza (ZAZ)

Aena saw 230.2 million passengers pass through its airports in 2016. It made a net profit of €1,164 million in the same year.