The new strike call for cabin crew at Ryanair is currently having little impact on the operations of the Irish low cost airline. The second day of unemployment was down yesterday. The airline canceled only two flights, those that cover the route between Barcelona and London's Stansted airport, compared to the ten flights suspended on Monday, while there were 223 delays (233 the day before), most of them in Palma. The USO union, convener of the protest together with Sictpla to demand the negotiation of a collective agreement with the company, already recognized on Monday that the impact of the strike would be "minimal", said Pau Ibarzábal, union spokesman, due to the minimum services dictated by the Ministry of Transport, up to 85% depending on the flights. To this is added that Ryanair is considering minimum services on "all flights and communicates this to the workers," they denounce from USO.
Be that as it may, the percentage of canceled flights in Ryanair with respect to the total is only 1%, in the global average of airports such as El Prat or Barajas in July, according to OAG data. In fact, Ryanair yesterday unlinked these cancellations and delays suffered from the cabin crew strike and attributed it to air traffic controller stoppages in countries such as France and operational tensions at airports throughout Europe.
“Although a small number of flights in Spain were canceled or delayed in July, this was mainly due to air traffic controller strikes and flight delays. In July no flight was canceled due to the strikes called by the USO and Sitcpla”, they say from the airline, which insists that the “vast majority” of its cabin crew “are represented by the CC.OO.” union. This reached an agreement with the airline that includes only its affiliates, but negotiates a global collective agreement for the airline, they highlight in the company. USO and Sictpla claim in turn to be interlocutors for the collective agreement that must cover the entire workforce and finally assume Spanish legislation.
The strike call is scheduled from Monday to Thursday, every week until January 7, 2023. And although its impact on the number of cancellations and delays is limited, it can cause reputational damage to the company and drive away customers at a time of maximum competition.
It is not the only airline facing stoppages in Spain. EasyJet cabin crew also called strikes in July, but reached an agreement with the company to raise wages. On the other hand, the pilots of the British low cost, through Sepla, do maintain a planned strike for the next three weekends.
