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TRAVEL NEWS

What’s the latest on the Ryanair strikes in Spain?

Spanish unions recently called on staff at budget airline Ryanair to hold a six-day strike in June and July, and as things stand, the stoppage is scheduled to go ahead. Here's everything you need to know and how it could affect Ryanair passengers.

Published: 20 June 2022 11:09 CEST
Ryanair flights
Ryanair staff to strike in Spain. Photo: Adrian DENNIS / AFP

LATEST: Ryanair strike in Spain kicks off with hardly any cancelled flights

Many travellers planning on visiting Spain in the next couple of weeks could face disruptions as unions have called upon staff at budget airline Ryanair to strike.

As of Monday June 20th, no agreement has been reached in a bid to hold off the walkout. 

The strikes are scheduled to take place over six days on June 24th, 25th, 26th and 30th, as well as July 1st and 2nd.

In a meeting held on Friday between the Spanish trade union Unión Sindical Obrera (USO), Sitcpla – Independent Union of Airline Passenger Cabin Crew and the airline, no agreement had been made and no minimum number of services had been established either.

Low-cost airline Ryanair has requested that 100 percent of the flights scheduled over the six days of the strike be considered as minimum services. A measure that, according to the unions, voids the right to strike.

Union representatives, on the other hand, have requested that they establish a minimum of 50 percent of flights to the Balearics and the Canary Islands and 25 percent for mainland Spain.

Ryanair has not accepted the union proposal, so the next step will come from the Spanish Ministry of Transport, which will be in charge of setting minimum services and demand that negotiations be resumed.

On Monday June 20th, the unions are to meet with Civil Aviation to establish the minimum services and protect flights.

READ ALSO – Airport chaos in Europe: What are your rights if flights are delayed or cancelled?

Workers’ unions have also criticised the fact that the airline has refused to release the members of the strike committee and that it has also not been willing to provide information on the flights that they want to consider minimum services, or information on the crews designated for those flights.  

This essentially means that travellers still don’t know yet if their flight will be affected or not.  

The stoppage has been called at the airline’s ten bases in Spain: Madrid, Málaga, Seville, Alicante, Valencia, Barcelona, ​​Girona, Santiago de Compostela, Ibiza and Palma de Mallorca.  

Why are staff striking?

It is estimated that around 1,200 to 1,400 airline workers could walk out over the six days due to disagreements over Spanish labour legislation.  

Unions maintain that Ryanair staff are still not covered by Spanish labour legislation. Specifically, they are not guaranteed 22 days of vacation per year or 14 national holidays.

Access to the rights to reduce working hours due to legal guardianship or family care is also in dispute as workers do not receive their payroll though Spain’s legal labour model, nor are their contracts written in Spanish.

Meanwhile, the Irish company has explained that it has “successfully” concluded collective agreements with unions throughout Europe, including Spain.

“We believe that the strikes called by USO and Sitcpla will not be supported by our crew members and that there will be minimal if any, disruption to our customers, as happened in their previous failed strikes in 2018 and 2019,” Darrell Hughes, Chief People Officer of Ryanair told The Local Spain. 

The airline also disagreed with the unions saying: “We are aware of a number of falsehoods expressed by these unions in the Spanish media. Ryanair fully complies with all Spanish labour legislation, all of our employees in Spain have Spanish employment contracts and full Spanish labour rights”. 

“After a few weeks of negotiation with CCOO [Workers’ Commissions], we have successfully negotiated an agreement after being unable to reach an agreement with USO and Sitcpla for four years. It is important to note that the agreement with CCOO is a starting point and we are working on further agreements, including a new agreement this week with CCOO, with the ultimate goal of achieving a collective agreement next year that will apply to all Ryanair cabin crew in Spain”, added the representative of the company.

Ryanair also told The Local that as of yet, they didn’t know how many passengers or flights would be affected by the strikes. 

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TOURISM

How much more expensive will holidays in Spain be this summer?

Whether it be hotel prices rising or shortages in the aviation sector making flights more expensive, a summer vacation in Spain this year is likely to cost more than last year.

Published: 25 April 2024 09:13 CEST
How much more expensive will holidays in Spain be this summer?

With lingering inflation, drought conditions, rising rents and building social tension surrounding the impact of mass tourism on Spanish society, summer 2024 could be an eventful one in Spain for a number of reasons.

It will probably also be more expensive than it was in the past, especially if you’re staying in a hotel or tourist apartment.

This follows a bumper Easter period that saw high occupancy and price rises across the country, and if forecasts and industry experts are anything to go by, it’s a trend that will continue into the summer season.

READ ALSO: ‘The island can’t take it anymore’: Why Tenerife is rejecting mass tourism

Hotel prices March increased by 10 percent compared to the same period in 2023, and have now experienced 34 consecutive months of price increases.

The average hotel room in Spain during March cost €109.2 per night, according to Hotel Tourism Situation data published by Spain’s National Statistics Institute (INE).

How much more expensive will flights to Spain be this summer?

Firstly, flights. Aviation industry experts suggest that a perfect storm of conditions could cause the price of flights to increase for summer 2024. A shortage of commercial planes, caused mainly by a combination of problems on Boeing’s production line and Airbus having difficulties with engine manufacturers, will likely drive up prices around the world.

These “are factors that don’t make it easy for prices to fall,” according to Pere Suau, professor of Economics and Business Studies at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, who admitted that “it is difficult to measure the extent to which” they will go up. The key, in Suau’s opinion, is to see how demand will be affected by price rises. “As of today prices are rising, but demand is tolerating it, demand continues to grow,” he adds.

Reports in the Spanish media suggest that prices on budget airlines like Ryanair could rise by around 10 percent.

READ ALSO: EasyJet opens Spanish base in Alicante with ten new routes

How much more expensive will hotels in Spain be this summer?

So, flights will likely be more expensive this year. But what about hotels?

It’s difficult to say exactly by how much hotel prices will have risen by summer, but most estimates put it at somewhere in the 8-12 percent range, depending on factors such as location, occupancy, type of accommodation (ie. is it luxury or budget) and length of stay.

However, despite that, most experts seem to think the price rises will be slightly less than the 2023-23 year-on-year increases, when average hotel room costs shot up by 16.5 percent, according to statistics from SRT and Cushman & Wakefield.

Albert Grau, partner at Cushman & Wakefield’s Hospitality department in Spain, told El Periódico de España that: ‘We expect there to continue to be growth in prices… although it will be more moderate, in single digits, compared to the large increase in the last year.”

Spanish news outlet La Sexta reports that hotel rooms in the summer will be on average 11 percent more than last year, according to figures from INE and Travelgate.

Forecasts by American Express Global Business Travel (Amex GBT) put Barcelona, long a popular tourist destination, among European cities where a significant increase in hotel prices is expected, with a projected rise of 9 percent. Other Spanish cities, such as Bilbao and Valencia, are forecast to see price jumps of around 8.5 percent.

In Andalusia, hotel sector insiders in Andalusia are expecting a 7 percent increase overall this summer, according to Trinitario Bertore, director of Hotel Plaza Nueva in Granada, who spoke to La Sexta. Bertore said a night’s stay in a hotel in Andalusia can now cost up to €210, a 7 percent rise compared to last summer.

José Luis Contreras, managing director of Apartamentos Valencia Costera, said prices in tourist flats in Valencia will also rise by around 7 percent and even reach an eye-watering €350 per night in the high season.

Both Bertore and Contreras said that there’s no need to lower prices because demand is increasing, despite the per night rate increases.

It seems clear that accommodation will likely be a more expensive for summer 2024 in Spain than it was last year, though the year-on-year rise will slow slightly. Most forecasts put the average expected hotel price rises at roughly 10-11 percent overall.

By exactly how much will depend on several factors: where you’re staying, and whether it’s a traditional tourist spot such as parts of Andalusia, Alicante, Valencia or the Canary and Balearic Islands; whether it’s a hotel or apartment; the quality of the accommodation; how long you’re staying; how far in advance you book; when exactly in the summer season you’ll visit Spain.

Aviation industry uncertainty also means that flights will become more expensive, so both travel and accommodation are likely to be more expensive in Spain this summer.

Tourism makes up a significant portion of Spain’s GDP. Predicted tourism earnings for 2024 are expected to bring in €202.65 billion, an 8.6 percent increase on 2023, a record year.

However, growing anti-mass tourism sentiment has been bubbling in Spanish society for some time now, with protests in various cities around the country decrying the impact, among other things, of Spain’s tourism model on the local housing market.

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