Canceled flights, empty check-in counters, and a significant reduction in passengers are the landscape left by the general strike called in Portugal at Lisbon airport, where a certain tranquility reigns this Thursday.
“Anyone who knows the airport knows that today is a completely atypical day in terms of movement because the airlines have taken care to cancel flights in advance, as they knew there would be a large turnout and that it would be worse for everyone,” explained to EFE Jorge Alves, president of the Aircraft Maintenance Technicians Union (SITEMA).
More than 40 flights were canceled between 11:00 and 20:00 local time (same GMT time), as EFE was able to verify, with national and international destinations such as Madrid, Nantes, Amsterdam, Washington, Newark, Paris or Casablanca, among others. Several more suffered delays and postponements.
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Airlines have been, throughout the week, canceling flights and offering passengers to reschedule their trips, to prevent the airport from descending into chaos this Thursday.
It is the case of Enrique and a friend, who arrived this Thursday from San Francisco (USA) to Lisbon, where they had a layover to Madrid that was canceled due to the strike. Upon being notified by the airline, they decided to delay their flight and stay a few days in Portugal to take advantage of the opportunity, they told EFE.
Nathalie, however, has doubts about whether she will be able to board her flight this afternoon to Luxembourg, which has not been canceled for the moment, after arriving in Lisbon to spend a few days for work. Given the alert of paralysis in both the city and the airport itself, she decided to arrive several hours earlier to avoid inconveniences.
According to the president of the Civil Aviation Flight Personnel Union, Ricardo Penarroias, “the participation has been enormous”, and he put the adherence “very close to 100%”, with the exception of the airline Ryanair.
In the case of TAP, the state-owned airline, it is operating 7% of its flights, Alves detailed, a figure that represents the minimum services agreed between unions and the company.
“It should be noted that, in 50 years of democracy, this is only the fifth general strike to occur in Portugal. In other words, it is of extreme importance and a general strike is not called because things are mild,” Alves asserted.
The union leader considered that the labor reform presented by the country’s center-right government, for which the strike has been called, “is a serious attack” on workers’ rights.
“We want secure employment with conditions and not precariousness,” he concluded.
The general strike, the first in twelve years in Portugal, began last midnight and will last for 24 hours.
The country’s main unions have called this day of protest against the labor reform project proposed by the government of Prime Minister Luís Montenegro (center-right), which, according to the workers’ representatives, facilitates dismissal, deregulates working hours and affects rights such as breastfeeding leave.
