Ryanair has assured passengers that strikes called by two unions representing cabin crew in Spain will fail to disrupt any of its flights this summer.
The first in a series of weekly strikes organised by the SITCPLA and USO trade unions began yesterday (August 8).
It marked the start of five months of weekly walk-outs from Monday to Thursday which are due to run through to early January.
Ryanair claims “these two tiny unions”, SITCPLA and USO, represent “only a handful” of its Spanish cabin crew and sought to reassure passengers the strikes will cause “zero disruption” in August and September.
The airline insisted “a number of poorly supported strikes in June and July had little or no impact on Ryanair’s flights to or from Spain”.
More: EasyJet pilots in Spain plan nine days of August strikes
A Ryanair spokesperson said: “A tiny number of Ryanair flights in Spain were cancelled or delayed in July, [but] this was mostly due to air traffic control strikes and flight delays.
“Ryanair expects that these latest threatened strikes will have zero impact on our Spanish flights or schedules in August or September.”
However, the USO and SITCPLA claim to represent up to 1,000 of Ryanair’s cabin crew in Spain.
They say they called the strikes due to the carrier’s refusal “to engage in any dialogue with the representatives elected by their crew”.
Ryanair did recognise USO and SITCPLA as representative unions for cabin crew in 2019 but there is no collective agreement and Ryanair refuses to negotiate with them.
The unions are demanding recognition, the restoration of pre-pandemic wage levels, an agreement on annual leave, and “immediate reinstatement” of 11 workers sacked following the strikes in June and July.
They also want the suspension of disciplinary proceedings against another 100 workers as a result of the previous stoppages.
The unions say the last cabin crew strike led to the cancellation of nine flights and delays to 42.
Ryanair operates flights to and from Alicante, Barcelona, Malaga, Palma de Mallorca, Madrid, Ibiza, Murcia, Tenerife, Gran Canaria and Lanzarote.
The carrier has a labour agreement with another Spanish cabin crew union, the CCOO.
The Ryanair spokesperson said: “The vast majority of Ryanair’s Spanish cabin crew are represented by the CCOO union who have reached a labour agreement with Ryanair which covers most of our Spanish cabin crew.”