canary islands airport strike easter holiday chaos

Easter Travel Chaos Looms as Airport Staff Strike

Easter holiday travel faces major disruption

The beginning of the Easter holidays for many Canary Islands residents and visitors is threatened with chaos after ground staff at handling companies Groundforce and Menzies called a strike. The unions have announced walkouts starting on 27th March—the key departure day for the holiday period—and extending until 6th April, a day after the main return operation. The strike will affect aircraft passenger, baggage, and cargo loading and unloading operations, which could lead to cancellations, delays, and rescheduling.

Which airports and airlines are affected?

The strikes are set to impact Gran Canaria, Tenerife North, Tenerife South, Fuerteventura, and Lanzarote airports. Groundforce, which provides services for Air Europa, will see industrial action called by CCOO, UGT, and USO unions beginning on 27th March. Stoppages are planned for morning, afternoon, and night shifts (from 05:00 to 07:00, 11:00 to 17:00, and 22:00 to 00:00) and will continue indefinitely.

At the Menzies group, which handles ground services for airlines including Emirates, British Airways, American Airlines, EasyJet, Turkish Airlines, Norwegian, Wizz Air, Avianca, Qatar Airways, and Ryanair, the strike called by UGT will take place on 28th and 29th March, and from 2nd to 6th April, lasting 24 hours on each of those days.

Pay disputes behind the industrial action

Sources state that at Groundforce, a disagreement with the company concerns the “correct” application of wage scales and, specifically, the application of the differential derived from the Consumer Price Index (CPI) and the guarantee of purchasing power outlined in the collective agreement. They explain that the company is “reneging on” what was agreed and applying a 4.58% rise to fixed pay elements for administrative and agent staff groups, when it should be 7.82%, in line with other job groups and categories.

At Menzies, the action will affect all companies within the Group (Menzies Aviation Ibérica and Menzies Ground Services) and around 3,000 workers. The same sources indicate that if no agreement is reached with the company, the strikes will extend to every weekend until the end of the year.

Background of the handling companies

Groundforce, the handling operator of the Globalia group, obtained 12 licences in the latest award for ground assistance services from Spanish airport operator Aena in September 2023. These were for Madrid, Barcelona, Palma de Mallorca, Alicante, Málaga, Gran Canaria, Valencia, Ibiza, Bilbao, Lanzarote, Fuerteventura, and for air cargo in Zaragoza. Menzies, part of the Kuwaiti Agility group, was awarded ramp and passenger services in Barcelona, Palma Mallorca, Málaga, Alicante, Gran Canaria, Tenerife South, and Tenerife North in the same tender.

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