Strikes in Malpensa: 200 flights cancelled

Malpensa sciopero voli cancellati

*Translated by Sara Pasino

MALPENSA – On Friday, October 21, two hundred flights were cancelled from Malpensa. It was the result of the strike of 24 air traffic controllers, the workers of the handling companies and of the air transport companies, as well as the staff of some companies like easyJet and Vueling.

The airports of Milan 

The two airports of Milan were almost deserted. No particular inconvenience was reported, as passengers had been notified in time by the airlines and therefore avoided unnecessary travel to the airport. There were about 300 cancelled flights at the two airports operated by Sea, two thirds of which in Malpensa and the remaining in Linate. Very few flights took off, in particular only in the two guaranteed time scales: from 7am to 10 am and from 6 pm to 9 pm. 

The strike

The strike was called by Filt-Cgil, Fit-Cisl and Uiltrasporti, who wrote in a note: «The response of closure by Enav to the demands of the workers make this strike action indispensable. We have been waiting for real answers for too long. The issues are the application and evolution of the industrial plan, the adaptation of the staff, the organisation of the work shifts and the definition of timing and content of the renewal of the contract».

Ryanair was flying off the handle, as the company was forced to cancel over 600 flights (resulting in repercussions on over 100,000 passengers). 

Rynair’s director of operations, Neal McMahon: «It is unacceptable that a small number of striking Italian air traffic controllers can cause chaos once again. The time has come for the EU to intervene and protect European passengers, so that they are not repeatedly held hostage by the air traffic controllers’ strikes».

Malpensa strikes flights cancelled – MALPENSA24