Spain’s Airport Staff Christmas Strike Gets Cancelled
One of the largest trade unions in Spain, CCOO, has announced that the airport strike, which was planned to take place around Christmas and New York, has been called off.
According to CCOO, the walkout of the airport staff has been cancelled as they have been able to reach an agreement, following talks with Aena’s management and the Spanish Ministry of Transport, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.
Now that an agreement has been reached, travellers who are planning to reach Spain during Christmas and New Year will no longer have to be worried about facing travel chaos as flights will be operating as per their usual schedule.
The airport staff strike which has now officially been cancelled was expected to take place since the employees of Aena had not received the productivity bonus when a profit is recorded. Such a bonus was promised on their work contract.
Announcing the now cancelled strike, CCOO said earlier this week that the bonus for airport staff should be provided again as the number of travellers has started to increase again. The same highlighted that during the COVID-19 pandemic they did not make such a request as travel was disrupted.
The improvement in the country’s air traffic figures was confirmed by CCOO general secretary for Aena, Francisco José Casado Moreno. CCOO general secretary said last week that air traffic has recovered to 2019 levels and stressed that some Spanish airports have exceeded the pre-pandemic figures.
Data provided by the Ministry of Tourism of Spain has shown that in October of this year, almost .2 million international tourists reached Spain, representing 94.6 per cent of those during the same period in 2019.
The Ministry further revealed that in the same months, international tourists spent over €8 million during their stay in Spain.
“October maintains the recovery trend that began a year and a half ago, which is allowing it to reach pre-pandemic levels. The tourism sector is showing great strength despite the current context of uncertainty, which is reflected very favourably in the economy and employment,” the Spanish Minister of Tourism, Reyes Maroto stated.
In addition to the above-mentioned, the Ministry said that the highest number of tourists that reached Spain in October were from the United Kingdom, Germany, and France. The same showed that Catalonia, the Balearic Islands, the Canary Islands, and Madrid, among others, registered the highest number of tourist arrivals on October 2022.
