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Spanish air traffic controllers could bring more misery to UK tourists by going on strike this summer.
The staff will decide whether to announce an industrial action at an assembly in late June in Barcelona, sources in the USCA air traffic controllers’ union have told the Spanish press.
There has been no official announcement from the union, which claims to represent more than 90 percent of air traffic controllers in Spain.
But the national spokeswoman, Susana Romero, confirmed overnight the possibility of a strike in the comments she made to the respected Mallorcan newspaper Diario de Mallorca.
The nightmare scenario of a strike by Spanish air traffic controllers in addition to the ongoing chaos affecting tourists trying to leave many UK airports, followed USCA complaints about staffing levels as the number of passengers returns to pre-Covid pandemic levels 19.
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Retired staff are said to have not always been replaced and new air traffic controllers were not trained during the coronavirus pandemic due to the cancellation of training courses.
Earlier this week, USCA published a tweet from Diario de Mallorca highlighting its claims that the number of air traffic controllers in the Balearic Islands, which includes Mallorca and Ibiza and is one of the most popular destinations for British tourists, was “insufficient” for the summer.
Antoni Capo, director in the Balearic Islands of the Spanish air navigation manager ENAIRE, insisted in a recent interview that the control center and the air traffic control tower in Palma would have 11 more air traffic controllers this year than in 2019.
The figures he cited have been questioned by the USCA. The Spanish army was called in to take control of Spain’s air traffic in December 2010 after civilian personnel became massively ill in a dispute with Aena airport authority over working hours and working conditions.
The measure ordered by the Spanish government came after several airports across the country were closed after the unauthorized departure of air traffic controllers.
Thousands of passengers were stranded. Air traffic controllers ended the savage strike after the Spanish government declared an unprecedented state of alarm and Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba, then vice-president of the government, warned them that they would face criminal prosecution if they did not appear in court. work. .
Hundreds of air traffic controllers were charged with sedition, but most of the cases were filed before the trial and only a few in Madrid and Palma ended up paying fines after reaching out-of-court settlements with the prosecution.
A strike by air traffic controllers in June 2015 in Spain, which was expected to cause chaos, went virtually unnoticed.
Most staff were ordered to work after the government imposed a minimum 70% service.
Earlier this week, it was reported that British tourists arriving at Mallorca airport took an average of almost three hours after landing to reach the buses waiting for them to take them to their hotels.
Representatives of the Business Federation of the Transport of the Balearics (FEBT) met this Monday with the delegate of the central government of the region, Aina Calvo, to look for solutions.
The problems were mainly attributed to the lack of police in passport control, especially on Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays, when most package-carrying flights land in Mallorca.
FEBT manager Salvador Servera told the respected island newspaper Ultima Hora that the long delays in passport control meant that there was a side effect throughout the system and that holidaymakers arrived at their hotels much later than was expected.
Hundreds of flights outside the UK have been delayed or canceled in recent weeks and passengers have suffered several hours of waiting, with police being taken to deal with the chaos.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps held crisis talks with travel chiefs yesterday / Wednesday in which he told them to fix the mess, blaming staff shortages caused by job cuts during the coronavirus pandemic .
Union Unite has warned that unless airline and airport chiefs resolve the crisis before July, “chaos will last all summer long.”
The June assembly in Barcelona will be attended by representatives of the air traffic controllers of the five ENAIRE control centers in Madrid, Barcelona, Palma, Seville and Gran Canaria.