Rail services in the UK were disrupted on Saturday, the third day of a strike by rail workers, while the strike at Ryanair appeared to have a moderate impact on European skies, except in Belgium.
The British rail strike on Tuesday and Thursday was the country’s biggest in three decades, with workers demanding pay rises that have been matched by the highest inflation in 40 years.
The RMT union, which called the strike, is asking for pay rises in line with inflation, but also condemns “thousands of redundancies” and worsening working conditions.
According to traffic forecasts, between 7:30 am and 6:30 pm, only one in five trains are plying and half the tracks are closed.
At Ryanair, several unions have called for stoppages in Spain, Portugal and Belgium from Friday, while strikes in Italy and France are expected to start on Saturday.
The low-cost airline said “less than 2% of its scheduled 3,000 flights” were affected by strikes called by staff unions, including in Portugal, by SNPVAC.
According to Portuguese airports, only two Ryanair Lisbon-Brussels flights were canceled on Saturday, but at Charleroi, only 41% of Ryanair flights were able to depart today, and between Friday and Sunday, the company plans to cancel 127 flights. A spokesman for the Belgian airport.
Additionally, a three-day strike at Brussels Airlines ended today, prompting the Lufthansa subsidiary to cancel 60% of its flights, or about 300 flights, starting Thursday.
There were no cancellations in Spain in the morning, but the union said the situation would worsen over the weekend.
In France, where a strike is planned for two days (Saturday and Sunday), 20 flights have been canceled today in Marseille and 12 in Bordeaux, according to the National Union of Commercial Flight Attendants (SNPNC).
