Alitalia has now acknowledged the transportation strikes that will take place in Italy this coming Friday (December 15, 2017), released a list of flights that has been canceled for sure and rebooking options for affected passengers.
Air traffic controllers are planning to strike for four hours, airport personnel providing services to airlines are striking for several hours, some transportation employees are striking for eight hours, some Ryanair and Vueling employees are planning to strike for few hours during the day, and finally some/most Alitalia employees are planning tor strike for the entire day.
Here’s an update from Alitalia (access their web page here):
4-HOUR AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLERS STRIKE SCHEDULED FOR 15 DECEMBER
Some unions of the air traffic controllers have confirmed for Friday 15 December a 4-hour strike, from 1 pm to 5 pm.
The industrial action could affect the schedule of Alitalia flights on 15 December. The airline was therefore forced to cancel several domestic and international flights scheduled for 15 December.
List of cancelled flights is available here.
To minimize inconvenience, bigger aircraft will operate on several domestic and international routes in order to carry as more passengers as possible on 15 December: 80 per cent of travelers will fly on the same day.
Alitalia invites all customers already holding tickets for travels on 15 December to check the status of their flights before going to the airport on alitalia.com website, or calling the airline at the toll-free number 800.65.00.55 (within Italy), at +39 06.65649 (from overseas), or contacting the travel agency where the ticket was bought.
Travellers holding tickets and eventually affected by cancellation or schedule change of Alitalia flights on 15 December can rebook their travel at no additional cost or penalty, or ask for a full ticket refund (only if the flight is cancelled or the delay on departure exceeds 5 hours) by 22 December.
On 15 December, CUB Trasporti trade union has also confirmed a 24-hour industrial action of the air transport sector. Flights set to operate on 15 December during the peak times between 7 am to 10 am and from 6 pm to 9 pm will operate as scheduled
Here’s the list of canceled Alitalia flights that the airline has released:
ENAC has released a list of flights that will operate for SURE and more information about the strikes and their times (only in Italian):
Conclusion
Not sure what happened with Alitalia and its unions. Originally most of their flights were supposed to be canceled on this day. Perhaps they reached an agreement?
The transportation strikes should affect some Vueling and Ryanair flights as well. Interesting to see how this will play out.
I am flying through Italy on Alitalia on December 19th. I hope that there is no strike activity planned on that day.