Most travel restrictions have fallen after two years of Covid-19, but getting on a plane won't be easy.

In question, strikes in the airports linked precisely to this brutal resumption of traffic at the start of the summer season.

Between frozen wages and infernal rates caused by the recovery against a background of lack of staff, social tension has risen a notch.

At Ryanair, several unions of air hostesses and stewards have called to stop work from this Friday and for several days, in Spain, Portugal and Belgium.

In Italy and France, the strike is due to start on Saturday.

In Belgium, this protest movement forced the Irish company to cancel 127 flights between Friday and Sunday departing from and arriving in Charleroi, where most of its activity is concentrated.

The low-cost company will only be able to provide at this airport between 30 and 40% of its planned activity, according to a spokeswoman for Brussels South Charleroi Airport, the company that operates the airport.

“Infringement of the right to strike” denounced in Spain

On the other hand, the strike had a limited impact in Portugal, and zero in Spain where no flight was canceled, the Irish company having decided according to the unions to impose a minimum service of 100% on its 438 flights scheduled for Friday.

In a press release published Thursday afternoon, the Spanish Ministry of Transport announced that it wanted to apply a minimum service of up to 82% on certain destinations, saying that it wanted to combine "the right to strike" with the "interest of travelers".

But Ryanair finally "informed employees that all flights were subject to minimum service, threatening them with disciplinary reprisals", denounced to the press Ernesto Iglesias, delegate of the Workers' Union (USO).

The USO, which is demanding wage increases and improved working conditions, has announced the filing of an appeal against the management's decision.

Ryanair "does not respect the law", insisted Ernesto Iglesias, accusing the company of "infringement of the right to strike".

Flights canceled in France

According to the Irish company, regularly accused of breaching labor law, "less than 2% of the 3,000 flights" scheduled for Friday were "affected by strikes".

These are “minimal disruptions”, she insisted.

In Spain, the social movement at Ryanair, the country's leading company in terms of the number of passengers transported, must continue until July 2.

The impact should nevertheless remain minimal, according to the group.

The anger also affects the British low cost company EasyJet, where the USO announced nine days of strike during the month of July in the airports of Barcelona and Malaga, as well as in Mallorca, in the Balearic archipelago.

In France, where the strike is scheduled for Saturday and Sunday, 20 flights were canceled in Marseille and 12 in Bordeaux for the day on Saturday, according to the National Union of Commercial Flight Crew (SNPNC).

This social movement is coupled in Belgium with a strike at Brussels Airlines, which began on Thursday.

The company announced at the beginning of the week the cancellation of 315 flights at Brussels-Zaventem due to this walkout scheduled until Saturday.

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