Travellers using Madrid-Barajas should brace for possible baggage delays after maintenance engineers who service the airport’s automated baggage-handling system (SATE) voted to prolong their rolling strike until 30 November. The industrial action, led by the Alternativa Sindical de Clase (ASC) union against contractor Outsmart Assistance, has been running five days a week since July and was due to lapse on 15 October. Under the new extension, workers will continue two-hour stoppages from 05:00-07:00 and 13:00-15:00 each Monday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Spain’s Transport Ministry has imposed minimum-service levels that require at least 50 % of maintenance staff to remain on duty, meaning flights are unlikely to be cancelled. However, if a conveyor or sorter breaks down during a stoppage, suitcases may take longer to reach belts in Terminals T1–T4. For airlines the risk is operational: delayed baggage delivery can trigger compensation claims and missed connections, particularly on short transfer windows. Corporate travel managers should advise employees to keep critical work items in cabin baggage and allow extra time for transfers through Madrid. Mobility programmes relocating staff with large checked-baggage allowances may want to route via Barcelona or connect at other European hubs until December. The dispute centres on pay scales and weekend rostering following outsourcing of SATE maintenance in 2025. A parallel strike by staff of a second contractor, Totseriman, was suspended in July after a separate agreement. Madrid-Barajas handled 49 million passengers last year and is Spain’s main long-haul gateway, so any sustained disruption has outsized implications for global mobility flows.
Source: Strike Tracker
