After the meeting scheduled for Thursday morning between the Iberia group and the CCOO and UGT unions ended without agreement, the ground handling services strike began this Friday (handling), which will continue until Monday the 8th. The strikes have meant the cancellation of 444 flights.
Iberia has assured this Friday that the strike called by the airport services unions passed “without any incident” in the first hours and with a follow-up of 17% at 7 in the morning, so “the day is developing with normal”.
The strike coincides with the return operation from the Christmas holidays, since the days of strikes include the last weekend of the period, which also includes Three Kings Day (technically, the day of the Epiphany of the Lord, January 6) , National festive.
As reported at the beginning of the week by the Iberia Group, there are a total of 45,641 passengers affected for the 444 cancellations. Of these, 80.2% (36,621 travelers) had already been assigned new flights, while an additional 10.7% (4,900 people) had requested a refund. Thus, the company estimates that 91% of those affected have already been given a solution. In any case, they assure that “work continues to relocate the rest according to the possibilities, taking into account the complexity of the dates, just after Christmas, and the high occupancy factor of the flights.”
To avoid problems on strike days, Iberia “requests all travelers to check-in in advance through the website and that they go to the airport with more time than usual,” the firm detailed in a statement.