Vueling pilots to strike for second time

The airline Vueling is to cancel 232 more flights on Thursday and Friday due to pilots going on strike again, called by the pilots’ trade union Sepla. Flights from Barcelona airport make up more than 70% of the overall cancellations, as the company has its main base there.

Two 24 hour stoppages will affect 120 flights on May 3, and 112 on May 4. Vueling has assured that 87% of its clients will not be affected by the strike, while the rest will be relocated.

In a statement made on Wednesday, the airline also confirmed that 100% of all flights from the Canary Islands and Balearic Islands will be running.

Vueling pilots have said that they are striking because they are in an “unsustainable” situation, and that the company has “repeatedly breached both articles of the collective agreement of pilots, and the agreements that regulate the bases abroad.”

The company is in ongoing negotiations with Sepla in order to “try to resolve this situation as soon as possible.”

Vueling has also stated that it regrets the situation, and has apologized to its customers. The airline’s pilots also went on strike for two days last week, and more than one hundred Vueling flights were cancelled due to air traffic controllers striking in Marseille.