There appears to be new wave of strikes in Italy affecting Alitalia flights on May 28 which has a spillover effect to some flights on May 29.
Air traffic controllers are striking between 1PM – 5PM and various Alitalia unions between 10AM to 6PM.
Here’s an update from Alitalia (access here):
Alitalia to minimise customer inconvenience due to industrial actions on Sunday 28 May
Strike called by air traffic controllers and Alitalia employees. Customers are invited to contact the call center
Rome, 24 May 2017 – In view of multiple strikes called for Sunday 28 May, Alitalia has taken special measures to mitigate customer inconvenience and rebook the highest number of passengers affected by cancellations onto the first available flights. The Company was forced to cancel several domestic and international flights scheduled for next Sunday. So far, 80 per cent of passengers have already been booked onto alternative flights.
The strikes were called by unions representing air traffic controllers for the period 1 pm to 5 pm on 28 May and also by various trade unions representing Alitalia staff (CUB Trasporti, USB, Confael and Assovolo) from 10 am to 6 pm.
To minimize inconvenience, Alitalia invites all customers already holding tickets for travels on 28 May to call the airline in Italy on toll-free number 800.65.00.55, from overseas at +39 06 65 649, or contact the travel agency where the ticket was bought.
Additional staff will be on hand in the airports of Rome Fiumicino and Milan Linate to assist customers, and additional call centre staff will be on duty. Bigger aircraft will operate on several domestic and international routes in order to carry as more passengers as possible.
Alitalia apologizes for the inevitable inconvenience caused by this industrial action.
Here’s the list of currently canceled flights:
Conclusion
Remember that Alitalia has duty to care per EC 261/2004 even during the strike but customers are not eligible for cash compensation that are result of a strike.
Alitalia is required to rebook affected passengers on other airlines to the final destination at their (passengers’) earliest convenience. This means rebooking passengers on airlines such as British Airways, Emirates, Thai Airways etc. The airline must treat award ticket holders same as paid.
In case of long delays Alitalia is required to provide hotel accommodations and meal and telephone vouchers. You may have to pay for these by yourself first and later claim back from the airline.
It may be difficult to get Alitalia to properly rebook you, however. You can try this over the phone first but airport employees are usually more empowered to make changes (not necessarily the case with AZ though).