Italian Air Traffic Control Strike – A Long Friday Lunch
A full national lunch time strike in Italy today (18 October from 13.00 to 17.00 in CET) is likely to affect scheduled airline flights across Europe.
The strike comes after a week of European strike disruption.
Walk outs affected airline passengers in France on the 15 and 16 October, with air traffic controllers walking out again in protest at the Single European Sky (SES) proposals. Airline flights experienced delays and disruption.
UK airline passengers were also threatened with industrial disruption this week, with strike action over pay planned by baggage handlers and check-in staff employed by handling agent Swissport, based at Gatwick, Heathrow, Manchester and Stansted airports.
Urgent talks are to take place tomorrow to try to stop the protest, which would have a significant impact on airline flights from four of the UK’s busiest airports. The workers’ dispute is over the company’s decision to freeze workers pay for 18 months, from April 2012 to October 2013.
Private jet travel during airline strikes
Private jets are also impacted by industrial action, but less so than airlines. Private aircraft can be re-routed at very short notice and the inherent flexibility of private jet travel makes it possible to work around most kinds of travel disruption.
For advice on private jet travel in the UK or France, contact us or call our multi-lingual team on +44 (0)1747 642 777
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