Chaos in European skies: after Amsterdam, strikes are also planned in France in October. Flights at risk at all airports in the country
September 17 was a black Wednesday for air transportation: in the morning, in fact, more than 100 flights are [...]
KLM
ORY
Last September 17 was a Wednesday black for air transport: in the morning, in fact, over 100 flights were canceled at theairport of Amsterdam-Schiphol. The reason? One strike Of the ground staff of the Dutch flag carrier KLM. The protest, called by labor unions FNV e CNV, particularly involved baggage handlers and lasted well four hours, from 8:00 am to 12:00 pm.
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Those most affected were connections to European destinations in Germany, the UK and even Italy; but some long-haul flights to the US and Africa were not 'spared' either. After 12:30 p.m., however, the situation gradually returned to normal. What worries travelers, however, is the fact that new strikes have been called: the dates to mark on the calendar are those of the Sept. 24 and Oct. 1, with planned durations of six and eight hours respectively.
The inconveniences, alas, are not over: especially for colors those who will fly to and from France in early October. The union SNCTA, which represents about the 70% of French air traffic controllers, has yes suspended the strike scheduled for Sept. 18 and 19 but Has already announced new protests for Oct. 7 and 10: more specifically, the abstention from work for air traffic controllers is scheduled for the morning of both dates and all French airports will be affected. The suspension of the September strike is linked to the political crisis in France, which led to the government collapse and left the Ministry of Transportation vacant, making dialogue between the parties temporarily impossible.
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In short, after the strike last July 3 and 4 - which caused the cancellation of thousands of flights canceled across Europe and affected over one million passengers, ed. - travelers should arm themselves with patience and prepare for the next wave of protests.
As we always do, we would like to remind you that in case of inconvenience the passenger rights are protected by the Regulation (EC) No. 261/2004, which defines the situations in which a refund or monetary compensation can be obtained. Case histories vary, however, the most common situations in which passengers find themselves-in spite of themselves-are the following cancellations of flights communicated with less than 14 days' notice, or arrival at the destination with more than 3 hours' delay (except for exceptional causes beyond the company's control) or, again, theoverbooking o denied boarding, when more tickets are sold than actually available seats. The new "Flight Advocate" service has been active since June 2., thanks to which Italian (but not only) passengers will be able to take advantage of the assistance of a team specialized in handling all the different types of inconveniences that can happen in Italy and around the world.
