General Strike results in a 50pct cancelation of all flights

 

The AENA network of airports processed 659 flights until 11.00 am, and canceled a total of 401 flights due to today's General Strike, according to latest data.

AENA also confirmed how it's airports were operated normally to, with almost 50% (1'675) of their 3,424 scheduled flights being prtected by minimum service agreements.

Of the 1,675 guaranteed flights, 830 are for arrivals to Spanish airports, and 845 correspond to departures.

Iberia airlines were once again faced with long queues of angry passengers following the cancelation of 400 flights at Madrid-Barajas airport alone. Today's disruption will affect the airline particulary badly as earlier this week the SEPLA pilots union announced that a further 24 dates of strike action will be held on every Monday and Friday between April 9th and July.

Whilst Iberia blamed the cancelations as being due to "forces beyod their control" a common complaint from passengers was the lack of contact from the airline, be it by phone call, e mail of text message to advise them of such cancelations.

The problem for many passengers is compounded by the fact that many of the Cafes, Taxis and other airport services are closed due to the strike.

Meanwhile the UGT has criticised Ryanair, who scheduled extra flights at the last minute to articificially increase the number of flights that they would be permitted to operate under the 'minimum services' agreement.