Italy airport strikes disrupts several Air Malta flights

In the midst of a heatwave sweeping across Europe, a nationwide airport strike is set to take place across Italy on Saturday 15th July. A number of Air Malta have either been rescheduled, delayed, or cancelled as a result..

Italy’s airport control and handling staff will be on strike, with check-in and baggage handling services expected to be cancelled or severely disrupted between 10:00 and 16:00.

Air Malta has provided updates on which of their flights have been affected.

The following morning flights will take place earlier than they were initially planned:

The following flights will be delayed:

Meanwhile, flight KM644 (Malta to Catania) which was scheduled for 15:05 was cancelled, as was flight KM645 (Catania to Malta) which was scheduled for 16:30.

All passengers for those flights were rebooked on the next available same-day flight. Therefore, passengers booked on flight KM644 were rebooked to flight KM642 which will depart from Malta at 22:00 (six hours and 55 minutes later).

Passengers booked on flight KM645 were rebooked to flight KM641 which will depart from Catania at 07:25 (eight hours and 55 minutes earlier).

Disruptions to flights between 7:00 and 10:00, as well as flights between 18:00 and 21:00 are minimal since they are within what are considered protected time slots, according to the country’s Civil Aviation Authority (ENAC).

According to ENAC, Malta Air staff are among the list of those going on strike, with their cabin crew staging a walk-out between 12:00 and 16:00.

The strike being carried out by Italy’s airport staff is complementary to strikes which were carried out by the country’s railway sector on 13th July.

Workers in Italy’s transport sector are on strike demanding better pay and work conditions, in light of a post-COVID-19 tourism surge.