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Ryanair and EasyJet strikes coincide to cause travel chaos in Spain

EasyJet cabin crew on Friday resumed strike action that coincided with a Ryanair walkout and added to the travel chaos across Europe.

Published: 15 July 2022 17:53 CEST
Ryanair and EasyJet strikes coincide to cause travel chaos in Spain
An Easyjet Airbus A319-111 aircraft lands at El Prat airport in Barcelona. Photo: Pau BARRENA / AFP

Travellers hoping to go to or from Spain today were faced with two-headed strike action, as EasyJet cabin crew resumed a walkout that coincided with Ryanair’s latest round of strikes. As of 1.00pm on Friday, 28 flights had been canceled and 123 delayed across Spain, according to unions representing the workers.

On Friday the majority of affected flights were Ryanair, with 22 cancellations and 90 delays, while EasyJet had 6 cancellations and 33 delays.

Cancellations

Much like Ryanair’s strike action earlier in the week, the airport most affected by the industrial action has been Barcelona’s El Prat, which on Friday had 12 cancellations, eight from Ryanair and four from EasyJet.

Palma airport has also been heavily affected with 13 cancellations, eight from Ryanair and two from EasyJet. EasyJet has less operative bases in Spain, so no other airports are affected by EasyJet cancellations so far today, but Ryanair strike action has caused at least two flights to be cancelled at Alicante, Ibiza, Madrid, Santiago de Compostela and Valencia airports.

Delays

As for delayed flights, Palma had the most on Friday, with 35 delays, 11 being EasyJet and 24 from Ryanair. El Prat was second, with 33 flights delayed -12 from EasyJet and 21 from Ryanair.

Alicante, an airport with very heavy Ryanair flight traffic, had 11 delays, all Ryanair, and Girona three Ryanair delays. 

Ibiza also had three Ryanair flights delayed, and Madrid-Barajas 13 Ryanair flights affected. Malaga had 8 Ryanair and 10 EasyJet flights delayed, and Seville faced two delayed Ryanair flights. 

A summer of strike action

The start of summer has seen strike action across different sectors across the continent. Pilots are on strike in Sweden and Denmark, railway staff have taken industrial action in England, and Heathrow Airport recently announced it was capping the number of passengers passing through the airport due to staff shortages.

READ ALSO: Airport chaos in Europe: Airlines cancel 15,000 flights in August

Travellers in Spain, however, today got a double whammy of two separate industrial disputes overlapping.

EasyJet cabin crew are protesting at the breakdown in negotiation of their collective bargaining agreement, during which unions called for an rise of 40 percent base salary, and unions USO and Sitcpla are at loggerheads with Ryanair in negotiating a new collective agreement with its workers. Union bosses say Ryanair refuses to adapt the contracts to Spanish legislation.

EasyJet industrial action will affect travel on Friday 15, Saturday 16, and Sunday 17 July, with further walkouts planned for 29, 30 and 31 July.

The latest round of Ryanair strikes end today, Friday 15th, but will resume from July 18 to 21 and from July 25 to 28.

Strike dates

Ryanair cabin crew are, as of now, scheduled to strike on 18, 19, 20, 21, 25, 26, 27 and 28 of July.

EasyJet staff are, as of now, scheduled to strike on 16, 17, 29, 30 and 31 July.

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TOURISM

FACT CHECK: No, Spain’s Balearics haven’t banned tourists from drinking alcohol

Over the last few days, there have been a slew of sensationalist headlines mainly from UK media stating that Mallorca and Ibiza have banned alcohol.

Published: 16 May 2024 11:35 CEST
FACT CHECK: No, Spain's Balearics haven't banned tourists from drinking alcohol

Anyone having read the news about Spain in the UK over the past few days would be forgiven for thinking that drinking alcohol had been completely banned on the ‘party’ islands of Mallorca and Ibiza, but that’s not exactly the case. 

GB News went with ‘‘I cannot believe this!’ Britons fume at ‘tough’ new alcohol restrictions in popular parts of Spain’, while the Daily Mail wrote: ‘A kick in the Balearics for boozy Brits’.

Euronews reported ‘No more ‘sun, sex and sangria’ tourism in Ibiza and Mallorca under new alcohol laws’ and The Drinks Business simply said ‘Balearics bring in booze ban’.

It’s easy to understand why holidaymakers are confused and there has already been quite a lot of backlash, particularly from Brits.

Most of these articles concede further down that the truth is that the islands have only updated and toughened up laws on drinking in the street, and have also put a stop to shops selling alcohol late at night.

All this is in a bid to try and curb anti-social behaviour which many locals have been protesting against recently.

In fact, the rules don’t even apply to the whole of the Balearics or even the whole of Mallorca and Ibiza, they only apply to three resorts in Mallorca – Palma, Calvià and Llucmajor and one in Ibiza – Sant Antoni de Portmany.

As well as a ban on drinking in the streets in these areas, shops in these locations will also be forced to close between 9.30pm and 8am.

It’s not only that they will be banned from selling alcohol between these times, like many reported, but that they will have to close completely. 

The Governing Council of the Balearic Islands approved the modification of the Decree Law 1/2020 at the proposal of the Minister for Tourism, Culture and Sports, which regulates ‘excess tourism’.

The changes aim to promote responsible tourism and the improvement in the quality of tourist areas.

The ban also extends to one nautical mile or 1.85km off the coast, in a bid to put a stop to party boats from coming in too close to shore or picking up extra passengers.

This doesn’t mean that you can’t drink at all at night. Bars, clubs and restaurants in these resorts will still be serving booze late into the night, you just can’t walk down the street with your bottle of beer.

Anyone found breaking the rules will be subject to fines between €500 to €1,500.

The government of the Balearics also approved an annual spending of €16 million from tourist taxes which will be allocated for the modernisation and improvement of these areas and enforcing the ban.

The new laws came into effect on May 11th and the government has confirmed that they will be in effect until at least December 2027. 

What has changed from before?

The new decree reinforces laws that were brought in in 2020 banning alcohol offers such as two-for-one drinks, happy hours and bar crawls in these areas. These will also be extended until 2027. 

The prohibition of alcohol sales between 9:30pm and 8am was also already in place, but now the shops will be forced to close entirely.

The main change that will affect holidaymakers will be the ban on drinking alcohol on the streets.

Nothing new

But this is nothing new when it comes to Spain. Aragón, the Canary Islands, Cantabria, Castilla y León, Castilla-La Mancha, Catalonia, Valencia, Extremadura, Madrid and La Rioja all have some type of ban on what is known in Spain as botellón, essentially drinking alcohol with friends in a public place (street, square etc).

The Balearics are simply catching up to a large majority of the country, where this is already the norm.

All of this comes on the tail of mass complaints from the locals, particularly in Ibiza, where residents are planning to take to the streets at 8pm on May 24th to call on authorities to act on the impact tourism is having on locals’ living standards.  

It started with calls online to “imitate the protests that took place in the Canaries” in April, with many locals feeling that the issues that Ibiza faces are even worse than those of the Atlantic Archipelago. 

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