Europe’s travel strikes: Flight and train disruption you can expect in February

Strikes are a regular occurrence in Europe, as employees withhold their labour to fight for better pay and conditions.

Walkouts are sometimes planned months ahead but others are announced last minute, showing that it always pays to check before you travel.

Luckily, we have gathered all of the strike information together below.

Read on to find out where and when are walkouts taking place.

If your flight or train is cancelled or delayed, you will be entitled to a new ticket or compensation. Read our guide for the full details.

Spain: Strikes expected to disrupt train travel throughout February

Rail travel across Spain will be severely disrupted this month as staff call walkout throughout February**.**

The first industrial action called by Spanish trade union CCOO began on 9 February with a 23-hour stoppage resulting in the cancellation of 310 long and mid-distance Renfe trains, including high-speed AVE trains.

A further 330 long-distance trains and 641 mid-distance services have also been scrapped.

There is still a skeleton service operating, which Spain’s Ministry of Transport confirms is a legal obligation, which will likely reduce the number of cancellations.

Another of Spain’s key unions UGT has confirmed partial nationwide stoppages for 2-hour periods every Monday this month affecting transport on 12, 19 and 26 February.

Both UGT and CCOO have also called walkouts for 16 and 17 February on Catalonia’s Rodalies trains between 7 and 9 am and 3 and 5 pm.

Unions say the strikes have been called after a 35-hour working week at rail infrastructure manager Adif and the elimination of income categories at Renfe were not brought in.

Italy: National rail strike to impact long-distance and regional travel

Rail transport in Italy will face severe disruption on 12 February as employees of state-owned railway company Trenitalia and Trenord as well as private long-distance operator Italo walk out.

The strikes will affect all types of rail services including long-distance and regional trains for eight hours between 9 am and 5 pm.

The stoppage was called last month by two of Italy’s key transport trade unions CUB and SGB to protest against working conditions and recent proposals to privatise the railway sector.

As per national law, there will be a minimum number of services (servizi essenziali) guaranteed during the hours of the strike.

UK: London Underground staff call multi-day strikes

London Overground strikes will take place on 19-20 February and 4-5 March, union RMT has announced.

The 48-hour walkouts by security, station, revenue and control staff come after RMT members rejected a below-inflation pay offer. 

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Members of the Aslef union called strikes and an overtime ban earlier this month.

The walkouts impacted several different operators, including Avanti West Coast, CrossCountry, East Midlands Railway, West Midlands Trains, GTR, LNER, Southeastern, SWR and TransPennine Trains.

Train drivers are in a long-running dispute over pay, which they say has not increased in five years. 

France: Seven-month strike notice could hit Paris Olympics

Disruption is expected on the Ile-de-France bus and metro network as CGT-RATP has announced a seven-month strike notice from 5 February to 9 September.

Workers at the state-owned public transport company say they are walking out over pay. Strikes could hit during the Paris 2024 Olympics if a deal is not reached.

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If you know of a big strike happening in your country that we have missed, we’d love to hear from you via Twitter.