Iberia Pilot Strike
 

Anyone know anything about a possible Iberia pilot strike planned for all of next week?

Iberia Strike..
 

As i know its going ahead as planned... not sure if it will last the full 6 days though. BA flights are showing 0 availability for the duration, there is rumour of BA using 767s on more flights to take the overload...I commute from Barcelona, so will probably stay in the uk until the nasty mess has cleared up! ha.....:= (icon is Iberia staff saying 'fatal') hope the pilots get what they want without all this though! good luck! ! !

1. Spanish Govt details mandate for Iberia pilots during strike
Kerry Ezard, London (04Jul06, 13:59 GMT, 312 words)

Spain’s Government has ordered Iberia pilots to continue operating all flights between mainland Spain and the Balearic and Canary Islands, as well as daily services to foreign destinations with a flight time of more than 6hr, during the planned seven-day strike later this month.

Under a list of regulations set out by the Spanish public works ministry, pilots must also operate all services scheduled to depart before the beginning of the strike and arrive during the strike period. The industrial action will begin at midnight on 10 July and last until midnight on 16 July.

All intra-island flights between the Balearics and the Canaries, and all services linking mainland cities with the Spanish enclave of Melilla in Morocco, must also continue without interruption during the planned industrial action.

Pilots will also be mandated to operate 50% of domestic services on flights where the journey time on public transport exceeds 5hr, and 25% of services where the journey time on public transport is less than 5hr.

Half of all flights from Spain to foreign destinations with a duration of less than 6hr, as well as all services involving the transportation of mail and perishable goods, must also be maintained throughout the strike.

Spanish pilots union SEPLA describes the measures as “excessive”, but has promised to co-operate.

SEPLA has called the week-long strike to protest Iberia’s involvement in the Barcelona-based low-cost start-up Catair, which is scheduled to launch operations in October with an initial fleet of three leased Airbus A320s.

Union leaders are concerned that the new venture puts Iberia pilots’ jobs at risk, but, despite its decision to cut many of its mainline services from Barcelona El Prat Airport and replace them with routes operated by Catair, Iberia has insisted that its participation in the new carrier “will not in any way affect the level of employment or the conditions” of its pilots.

list of cancellations
 

In www.catair.cat you can find a list of flights cancelled by Iberia according to the day (from 10 to 16 of July).
The information is in PDF

Thank you so much for that list! It has helped me greatly for my Madrid trip this week.

It is interesting to note that most of the flights which have to go ahead are done by partner airlines:

Inter Baleares flights: done by Air Nostrum
Mellila flights: done by Air Nostrum
Inter Canarias flights: done by Binter

It sound a bit strange to me to mention those flights since the partners are not on strike.....:confused:

CATAIR
 

Well, I am happy the list of cancelled flights given by Iberia has been useful.
I hope that Iberia keeps the same name of the webpages so that the
links in www.catair.cat to the Iberia pages are useful until the strike ends.

I thank Iberia ...

All part of the trend.
 

This is a clear attempt by Iberia to do a BA. It will bocome "fortress Madrid", as they hive off regional routes to Catair with crews on lower cost contracts. There is some local view that says politics are part of the issue too, but I'm not so sure.

Iberia pilots are all based in Madrid, so those in BCN are on a good deal and live in BCN permanently. Their lifestyle is the main victim I think. It is one more example of the way the industry is going.

But their union SEPLA was able to call the bean counters to the negotiation table. This is a good example to other pilots and their unions to follow suit. Be united and you'll stand...
For that I thank SEPLA....
Check Six Krueger...:ok:

Another update:
It looks like they (SEPLA) got an agreement saying that their T&Cs wouldn't change in the future and nobody would get sacked.

Iberia LAE ensures all employees there won't be any sack due to the creation of the low cost Catair until 2010 .

Link to SEPLA news (Spanish): http://www.sepla.es/news/archives/006815.php