People expecting to travel to and from Italy face Friday flight disruption thanks to a last-minute general strike called in the country and a walk-out at Pisa airport.
EasyJet warned that Pisa flights would be cancelled today but it was not expecting the national industrial action to affect the rest of its schedule across Italy.
Alitalia has cancelled a “small number” of services but did not specific the level of affected flights.
“Although the strike will not cause particular inconvenience to Alitalia’s travellers, the airline has been forced to cancel some flights scheduled on October 21,” the Italian flag carrier said. “Alitalia will re-book its affected customers onto other flights or offer ticket refund.”
British Airways expects to operate its normal schedule of flights but cautioned that passengers may face baggage processing delays on arrival. There may also be an impact on the management of flight departures.
“We are expecting flights to/from Pisa to be particularly affected,” BA said.
“Although the industrial action is beyond our control and will affect many airlines, we are sorry for the frustration and any potential delays to your travel plans.”
EasyJet said: “There will be a local strike in Pisa; unfortunately whilst we are still doing everything possible to minimise the impact we will be cancelling flights on October 21.
“We will communicate to customers affected directly via SMS using the details provided at the time of booking and check in.
“We are not expecting an impact to our flights from the national strike across Italy. Apart from flights to and from Pisa we plan for our flights from other Italian airports to depart as scheduled.
“Public transport will be affected across Italy so we strongly recommend customers make alternative arrangements and leave extra time to get to the airport.”
Ryanair’s website was showing no disruption to flights departing from Pisa.