Calm first day of train and flight strikes

The first day of strikes at the Barcelona airport and at train stations across Catalonia has been calm, with no major incidents.

Iberia ground staff is going on strike on Friday and Saturday after talks this week with company representatives failed to conclude with a satisfactory agreement for all parties.

Spain’s flag carrier airline’s workers also provide services to other firms. Thus, Vueling has cancelled 112 flights at El Prat over the two days.

Meanwhile, Spain’s public railway service, Renfe, is also facing a strike this weekend. On Friday, workers were asked to strike from 12 pm to 4 pm and from 8 pm to 12 am.

A new strike will take place on Sunday, and some media sources affirm that some 360 trains will be cancelled all over Spain over the weekend.

30,000 affected by Iberia strike

While an estimated 30,000 passengers will be affected by the Iberia strike, according to the Catalan government, no additional queues were seen at the airport on Friday morning. The announcement of cancelled flights days before the strike has helped to avoid chaos among passengers.

At Barcelona’s Sants train station, there were no bigger crowds than usual either, with some people not even realizing there was an ongoing protest.

Not all unions have adhered to the strike, and minimum services were set at 40% for commuter trains and at 65 to 78% for medium and long distances.