Cancellations and confusion

Strike causes problems for expat passengers

A GENERAL strike in France from 19.00 on Wednesday until 06.00 today (Friday) hit numerous flights to and from Spain.

The strike, which included air traffic controllers, was called by the USAC-CGT union against reforms of labour laws.

The French civil aviation authority (DGAC) asked airlines to cancel 15% of flights on Thursday to the three airports in Paris, but some routes that use French airspace were still encountering problems as CBNews went to press.

The impact was being felt most in Paris but, despite the strike, the most significant delays were actually a result of bad weather.

The Spanish airports and aviation agency (AENA) indicated on Twitter that passengers should check the status of their flight with their airline.

On Wednesday, Ryanair cancelled six flights into and out of Murcia-San Javier and AlicanteElche airports to or from Luton, Dublin and Maastricht.

On Thursday four Ryanair flights, between Alicante-Elche and East Midlands and Stansted, were cancelled, as were two between Murcia-San Javier and East Midlands.

One local expat pensioner, who was supposed to be returning to the UK on Thursday for a wedding on Saturday, had to change her flight and leave a day earlier to Bristol instead of her intended destination of Stansted.

She and her husband ended up travelling to Alicante-Elche airport to make the arrangements because they found the Ryanair website confusing.

An AENA spokeswoman at Alicante-Elche told CBNews on Thursday morning the situation there was ‘normal and calm’, with ‘hardly any’ passengers turning up to find their flights had been cancelled, ‘because they had already received notifications from their airlines by text message’.

She noted the Ryanair cancellations, which had been set to carry about 800 people, were actually the only ones affected so far that day, and even the seven scheduled flights to France were still due to go ahead.

Another AENA spokeswoman seemed more confused by the situation, thinking at first that the strike had already finished and claiming no flights were affected at San Javier, despite the Ryanair cancellations.

She was also unaware that easyJet had cancelled a flight to Gatwick that was scheduled for Thursday evening, although the company reported there had been no cancellations on Wednesday.

A Jet2 employee at San Javier said she was not authorised to speak to the press and could not say if there had been any cancellations or delays, adding that the only way to obtain the information was by sending an email to the company.

EU Regulation 261/2004 requires airlines to offer a free refund if passengers wish to cancel or the option to change a cancelled flight for free.

Customers are not be entitled to claim for compensation as a result of industrial action but can claim for some expenses.

However, rebooking is subject to seat availability and the knock-on effect of the cancellations could further disrupt people’s travel plans.