No flights have been affected in the Canary Islands on the first day of the Ryanair strike

Today, June 24^th, is the first day of the six days of strikes called by Ryanair cabin crew from Spain, Italy, France, Portugal and Belgium, and the good news is that it is not having any impact on flights or airports in the Canary Islands. All flights are operating normally, except for those departing from Belgium, which have all been cancelled for the next three days of the strike, as there are no minimum services and a high level of follow-up of the strike is expected.

The airline announced a few days ago that it was confident that the strike, called by the USO and Sitclpa unions, would not have an impact on people's travel plans during the six days, this weekend and next weekend.

Ryanair's CEO, Eddie Wilson, said this morning that the company has signed an agreement with the CCOO for better wages and hours for cabin crew and by calling the strike, the unions are "only looking for confrontation." The USO and Sitcpla have rejected this agreement since the CCOO has hardly any representation in the company, and only safeguards the members of this union who are a minority.

Yesterday, the airline sent all workers a letter notifying them that there were minimum services, which would cover 100% of the flights scheduled, but the legal team of the USO are studying this.

In the letter, Ryanair stated: “We have signed this agreement after six weeks of negotiations. We have been negotiating with the unions that have promoted the strike for five years without results. They only seek confrontation. They demand a salary increase of 165% which is unrealistic.”

The minimum services require staff to fulfil their contractual obligations without any overtime or extras, to avoid disruption. This communication by Ryanair yesterday told the 1,200+ cabin crew that they were part of the minimum services, thus covering 100% of the flights. “Ryanair intends to maintain the schedule without cancelling any flights. They intend to operate all of them as if they were minimum services," the USO is arguing.

The minimum services decree approved by the Ministry of Transport last Wednesday provided protection for scheduled flights to guarantee that between 76% and 82% operate as normal, which Ryanair has raised to 100%, and the USO say they’re doing so illegally effectively taking away the staff’s rights to strike.

Between today and Sunday, a total of 180 Ryanair flights are scheduled in the Canary Islands, for 34,554 passengers, according to Mabrian consultants. Tenerife South airport has the most with 64 flights and 12,243 seats. In Gran Canaria there are 32 scheduled flights and 6,000 passengers; there are 48 flights scheduled in Lanzarote and 25 in Fuerteventura, 9 in Tenerife North and 3 in La Palma.

The strike is scheduled for today, tomorrow and Saturday, then next Friday, Saturday and Sunday as well.