The Iberia handling strike will leave nearly twenty cancellations in the archipelago between January 5 and 8, coinciding with the European winter and the high season for tourism on the islands.
Iberia and the CCOO, UGT and USO unions of the company's handling staff continue in a situation of total blockade during negotiations to call off a strike that, starting tomorrow, will leave more than 400 cancellations in national territory.
The strike will also affect the services of Air Nostrum and Iberia Express and, of those cancellations due to the strike, 19 will affect the archipelago.
In total there will be 444 cancellations, 270 from Iberia, 64 from Iberia Express and 110 from Air Nostrum. The Canary Islands will be affected with 19 cancellations, with Gran Canaria being the most affected island with 11 cancellations and the remaining 8 being at the Tenerife North Airport. All canceled flights are connections with Madrid.
The strike was called after Iberia lost the handling service at several of the main Spanish airports in the tender failed by Aena in September and that no agreement was reached in the negotiations to carry out autohandling at those airports.
In recent months, meetings have been constant to unblock this situation and avoid a strike. The last one was held this Wednesday with the intention of calling off the strike at the last minute. However, once again both sides did not reach an agreement, thus confirming the three-day stoppage that will affect more than 45.000 passengers.
As for the Canary Islands, this strike comes at one of the most important moments in the archipelago's tourist calendar, coinciding with the freezing Nordic winter from which many tourists seek refuge on the islands and who have to stop in Madrid to Reach your destination.
However, the strike will not only affect the tourism sector since thousands of Canarian students studying in the capital will be left on land in the middle of the university exam period after spending Christmas at home.
Without taking into account the multiple personal situations that force many Canarians to be regular users of the route between Madrid and the archipelago, who will be affected by these three days of strike that, despite Iberia's attempts in extremis, will take place from this Friday, January 5 and will affect normality at national airports the first weekend of the year.
