Sixteen flights canceled at Lisbon Airport due to three-day strike

By Victoria Waldersee

LISBON (Reuters) – Sixteen flights to and from Lisbon airport have been canceled this weekend as a result of a three-day strike by airport workers, with more cancellations and delays likely before the action ends on Sunday evening.

A spokesman for the National Union for Civil Aviation Workers (SINTAC), who called the strike, told local news agency Lusa that 90% of workers had taken part in the action in Lisbon on Sunday, the busiest day for the airport.

EasyJet (L:) and Brussels Airlines flights from Paris, Belgium, London, Bristol, and Manchester were canceled on Saturday and Sunday. Neither company immediately responded to a Reuters request for comment.

A Lisbon airport spokesman declined to confirm how many flights had been canceled, but said numbers would be given at the end of the day.

Talks between SINTAC and Vinci Group-owned Portway, which employs workers at Lisbon, Porto, Faro and Funchal airports, broke down in December when the company said it would not unfreeze salaries.

It had committed to do so by November 2019 when the freeze was implemented in 2016.

SINTAC said the company’s decision is intended to punish the union’s rejection of a revised work contract put forward by Portway in August.

“For three years workers have seen their career progression and salaries frozen for the sake of the company’s financial health,” they said on Friday.

Portway denied the allegations, Lusa reported on Friday, stating that they “scrupulously comply with regulations, including in relation to labor law”. The company could not be reached for comment on Sunday.

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