Airport staff strikes - Spain

lea2012 · 14 April 2019 at 7:58AM

Following on from an article on the main board.

Airport / Ground Staff are due to go on strike across Spain from Sunday 21st April.
Some articles report a one day strike, others have said its an indefinite strike. I believe originally it was an indefinite one but may now have been scaled back to 24hours all going well but either way we fly back from Barcelona on Monday 22nd so we expect there to be some sort of knock on effect.

I'm trying to plan ahead a little and know what my rights / plan of action should be. Strikes are out of the airlines hands so I don't mean compensation as that will not apply, but as my flight isn't until 5.30pm if its cancelled we may be stuck there overnight.

In this instance, if the flight is cancelled not delayed, am I correct in thinking that the airline must accommodate us for the night with either them booking somewhere or us booking somewhere reasonable and claiming it back? Same for an evening meal / breakfast?

Would they put us on the next available flight? Or would we be able to book on to an available flight with another airline and claim that back? We fly with Vueling and there next available flight is late evening on Tues so would prefer an earlier flight if available as we don't want to be hanging around and would need to be back for work, although most people would be in the same boat really.

Any tips / guidance should the strikes go ahead and affect us?

Thanks

Justice13075 · 14 April 2019 at 8:55AM

Why no compensation? the strike does not directly affect your flight they have enough time to prepare for the strike. Someone else might see it different but it looks that if you don't fly out on Monday it will because of the knock on effect. If you are delayed overnight on Monday they have to put you up at a hotel and pay for your food minus alcohol.

lea2012 · 14 April 2019 at 12:35PM

Thank you.
I presumed that because the strike was beyond their control we wouldn't get anything but as you say, that may be different if its a knock on effect.
As long as I know we will be covered for a room and food then I will be happy enough and will deal with anything else as it happens.

jpsartre · 14 April 2019 at 4:00PM

Yes, you are entitled to accommodation and meals should you be delayed. As Justice says, knock-on effects of extraordinary circumstances aren't automatically extraordinary themselves. For compensation purposes, everything depends on whether or not the airline could have taken reasonable steps to prevent the cancellation. Honestly, I would not expect an evening flight to be cancelled the day after a strike has ended. Airlines are usually pretty quick to get operations back to normal.

Airport staff strikes - Spain

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