Italy postpones planned aviation strikes to avoid Winter Olympics travel disruption.
Italy‘s nationwide aviation strikes, which were predicted to cause hundreds of flights to be disrupted on February 16, have been halted, preventing a major disruption in travel during the current Winter Olympics season.
Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini has halted the industrial action, which included a planned 24-hour strike by ITA Airways employees as well as involvement by pilots, cabin crew and ground staff across numerous carriers. During an event of “global importance,” he said, alluding to the Winter Olympics and the next Paralympics, mobility must be ensured.
The strikes by employees of ENAV, Italy’s national air traffic control services provider, which were also planned for March 7th, have been temporarily suspended. Although the Ministry of Transport is allegedly considering a window between 24 February and 4 March, during the break between the Olympic and Paralympic Games, revised dates have not yet been formally published.
Major disruptions would have been anticipated at major Italian airports, such as Milan Malpensa, Milan Linate, Rome Fiumicino, Venice Marco Polo, and Verona Valerio Catullo, had the strike on February 16th gone ahead. The majority of the more than 300 flights that ITA Airways alone had planned for the day fell outside the legally protected service windows of 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. It might have had an impact on tens of thousands of travellers.
Ground handling employees at Milan’s airports were anticipated to take part in the restricted walkouts, which were also announced by unionised crew from Vueling and easyJet in addition to ITA Airways.
Travellers may still experience additional disruptions later this month even though the aircraft strikes have been postponed. Employees of Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane, the state railway operator in Italy, are planning to go on strike for 24 hours, starting at 9 p.m. on February 27 and ending at 8:59 p.m. on February 28. Intercity, high-speed Frecce, and regional train services are probably going to be impacted.
During this time, passengers going to or from Italy are encouraged to keep an eye on official airline and rail operator updates and factor in extra time for their travels.
