Business travellers across Europe may face further disruption this summer as Eurocontrol, the organisation that manages European airspace, has warned of possible strikes that could start as early as Monday (10 July) and affect thousands of daily flights.
Air traffic control workers at Eurocontrol are reportedly preparing to walk off the job in a dispute over pay, working hours and staffing issues, according to a report in The Times.
An industry source told the UK newspaper that “a full-blown strike” could disrupt 20 or 30 per cent of flights. That would amount to as many as 12,600 flights each day during the peak summer period.
Eurocontrol has described the protests as a “pre-warning” and said it is currently in talks the Union Syndicale Bruxelles, a trade union representing workers at its operations centre, to end the possible industrial action.
Eurocontrol said the strike action could occur over a period of six months, but didn’t provide an exact time frame.
Reports speculate the first round of strikes could begin as soon as Monday unless a last-minute agreement can be reached.
Eurocontrol’s operations centre receives 96,000 messages a day and oversees more than 10 million flights per year.
The news follows a recent threat of strike action by Heathrow security staff as well as walkouts by rail staff both in the UK and in Germany and travel disruption in France in April after nation-wide worker strikes.