Italian travellers may swap Christmas cheer for terminal queues as a new round of airport strikes looms over the busy festive period. Turin daily CronacaQui reports that ground-handling crews and cabin staff in the UK, Spain **and Italy** have already staged walk-outs, with Italy’s main disruption pencilled in for 9 January. Union CUB Trasporti has called a four-hour nationwide action (13:00–17:00) covering ramp agents, check-in staff and security screeners. Separately, Swissport Italia workers at Milan-Linate will down tools for 24 hours the same day.
Although statutory “guaranteed service” bands protect early-morning and evening flights, mid-day rotations used heavily by business travellers are at risk. ENAC has asked airlines to file revised schedules by 3 January so that passengers can be re-protected in advance. The walk-outs follow a wave of wage-inflation disputes: baggage-handlers argue that 2024’s six-per-cent cost-of-living adjustment was wiped out by inflation running above eight per cent in Milan and Rome.
![Holiday strikes threaten fresh wave of flight delays at Italian airports]()
Down-line disruption could persist well into January. Enav air-traffic-control staff in Verona have announced a 31 January protest, while handling crews in Bologna and Venice are balloting for coordinated action unless pay talks progress. Ryanair and ITA Airways say they will offer free date-changes for flights touching affected airports between 8 and 10 January.
For corporates, the lesson is clear: build redundancy into travel itineraries by booking fully flexible fares, alert employees to check-in online the night before, and consider rail alternatives on trunk routes such as Milan–Rome, where high-speed trains cover the journey in under three hours. Mobility managers should also remind staff that EU261/2004 compensation does **not** apply to strikes deemed ‘extraordinary circumstances’, meaning companies must foot the bill for hotels or re-routing if employee policies require duty-of-care coverage.
Although statutory “guaranteed service” bands protect early-morning and evening flights, mid-day rotations used heavily by business travellers are at risk. ENAC has asked airlines to file revised schedules by 3 January so that passengers can be re-protected in advance. The walk-outs follow a wave of wage-inflation disputes: baggage-handlers argue that 2024’s six-per-cent cost-of-living adjustment was wiped out by inflation running above eight per cent in Milan and Rome.
Down-line disruption could persist well into January. Enav air-traffic-control staff in Verona have announced a 31 January protest, while handling crews in Bologna and Venice are balloting for coordinated action unless pay talks progress. Ryanair and ITA Airways say they will offer free date-changes for flights touching affected airports between 8 and 10 January.
For corporates, the lesson is clear: build redundancy into travel itineraries by booking fully flexible fares, alert employees to check-in online the night before, and consider rail alternatives on trunk routes such as Milan–Rome, where high-speed trains cover the journey in under three hours. Mobility managers should also remind staff that EU261/2004 compensation does **not** apply to strikes deemed ‘extraordinary circumstances’, meaning companies must foot the bill for hotels or re-routing if employee policies require duty-of-care coverage.
Source: Torino Cronaca
