Cabin crew at TAP Air Portugal began a two-day strike on Thursday to protest pay cuts, according to management and a union.
The company had anticipated the movement, canceling 360 flights, or half of the flights it was supposed to operate over the whole of the two days, according to management.
“As of 11:30 a.m. (local time), of the 148 flights scheduled today, TAP has already operated 78”, added the Portuguese carrier in a press release, further specifying that it had carried out “42 flights out of the 64 scheduled in the services minimum”.
Regarding flights canceled early, TAP had offered a new flight for each customer or a refund.
These cancellations aimed to avoid creating “crowds of passengers in uncertainty” at the airport, explained the general manager of the company, the French Christine Ourmières-Widener.
This strike comes in the context of the failure of negotiations for a new company agreement between TAP and the cabin crew, whose union refuses wage cuts and longer working hours.
“TAP deeply regrets this situation”, indicates the Portuguese carrier in its press release where it says it is available to “negotiate” with the unions and avoid new strikes.
“We are totally available,” said Ricardo Penarroias, president of the National Union of Civil Aviation Personnel (SNPVAC), who speaks of “total adherence” to Thursday’s strike movement.
The Portuguese airline group, whose difficulties have increased with the Covid-19 pandemic, was urgently completely renationalised in 2020, in exchange for the application of a restructuring plan imposed by Brussels.
Since then, the Portuguese socialist government has announced its intention to reprivatize the carrier, arousing the interest of the Air France-KLM, Lufthansa and IAG groups (parent company of British Airways and Iberia in particular).
ats, awp, afp