Irish passengers face further delays and cancellations over the coming weeks as airports across Europe struggle with staffing shortages and Covid outbreaks.
Travel plans may also be impacted by Ryanair’s Spanish cabin crew’s plans to strike over a 12 day period in July.
The action will take place from 12 to 15 July, 18 to 21 July and 25 to 28 July across Spanish airports.
Airports in Barcelona, Palma de Mallorca and Malaga, are likely to be affected by the strikes.
The USO union has asked the Spanish Government to mediate in the situation and called on all Spanish Ryanair workers to support the strike.
The move comes after action in June caused more than 1,000 delays to and from the holiday hotspot.
Ryanair had ten cancellations in Spain on Saturday and 123 delays affecting routes from London and Glasgow.
However, the airline confirmed yesterday that it expected “minimal, if any, disruption to its flights operating to and from Spain, as a result of cabin crew strikes called by the USO and SITCPLA unions from July 12 to July 28”.
A Ryanair spokesperson added: “Less than 1pc of Ryanair’s flights have been affected in the past month by recent minor and poorly-supported cabin crew strikes called by unions who are either not recognised by or who represent tiny numbers of Ryanair crews.
“Air traffic control (ATC) and airport staff shortages across Europe, which are beyond Ryanair’s control may, however, cause some minor disruption and any passengers whose flights are disrupted by ATC staff shortages will be notified of their entitlements by email/SMS.”
EasyJet staff are also due to take part in strikes in Spain on July 15, 16, 17, 29, 30 and 31.
Staff are taking action over an ongoing pay dispute.
Impacted employees had their pay docked by 10 per cent during Covid and are now seeking for it to be reinstated to the original pay.
The airline has offered the staff a one off 10 per cent bonus this year, but this offer has been rejected.
The action could be called off if the two parties are able to reach an agreement before the strikes.
Workers at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris went on strike on Friday and Saturday, forcing the cancellation of around 10 per cent of flights.
While in Portugal, another top holiday destination for Irish tourists, 65 flights to and from Lisbon were cancelled on Saturday due to constraints at European airports, with the airport management company ANA blaming “a set of constraints at various European airports”.
At present, the Portuguese situation has predominantly affected the services of airline TAP Air Portugal.
There has been widespread disruption at Dublin airport over the past few months as staff shortages cause chaos.
The issues have stemmed from employees being made redundant during the pandemic and have since found work elsewhere.
Aer Lingus was forced to cancel a number of flights on Monday and over the weekend due to Covid-related absences.
The airline reminded its passengers of their consumer rights should flights be cancelled, inviting those affected to visit their website.
Today the cancelled Dublin Airport Aer Lingus departure flights are the 6.40am Dublin to Berlin (EI332), the 7.10am Dublin to Zurich (EI342), the 12.50pm from Dublin to Manchester (EI208) and the Dublin to Rome (EI406) at 3.35pm.
The cancelled Aer Lingus arrivals are the 2.05am Split to Dublin (EI1471), the 12.05pm Berlin to Dublin (EI333), the 12.35pm Zurich to Dublin (EI343), the 3.25pm Manchester to Dublin (EI2019) and the 10.40pm from Rome to Dublin (EI407).
Yesterday, Aer Lingus stated four return flights had been cancelled due to illness. These were Dublin - Lisbon - Dublin (EI482/EI483), Dublin - Malpensa - Dublin (EI436/EI437), Dubin - Amsterdam - Dublin (EI610/EI611) and London Heathrow - Shannon - London Heathrow (EI387 / EI388).
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