ITA Airways flight attendants, pilots and ground staff walked off the job for 24 hours on 30 June after talks over pay scales and rest-time rules collapsed. The walkout led to hundreds of cancellations and re-routing of long-haul services that normally hub through Rome Fiumicino and Milan Linate. The stoppage, organised by the Filt-Cgil, Fit-Cisl and Uiltrasporti unions, began at 00:01 local time and falls outside Italy’s ‘protected time-bands’, meaning only a minimum number of domestic flights before 7 a.m. and between 7–10 p.m. were guaranteed. ITA pre-emptively axed 145 short- and medium-haul sectors and merged several North-America rotations by reallocating wide-body crews. Business travellers faced average rebooking windows of 36–48 hours, with Oneworld partners offering voluntary re-routes via Madrid and London. Companies covered by ITA’s corporate programme can claim refunds or no-penalty changes within seven days under the airline’s contingency policy; duty-of-care managers should ensure travellers receive assistance vouchers required under EU261. Unions say inflation has eroded real wages since ITA’s 2021 launch; management counters that a fresh salary grid will be negotiated only after the Lufthansa majority-takeover clears antitrust review. Further 4-hour strikes have been announced for 23 July if talks do not resume. International assignees and mobility teams should monitor upcoming strike calendars, build buffer days into itineraries through the peak summer season and remind travellers that compensation claims must be filed individually rather than through travel agencies.
Source: AK&M Newswire
