The air traffic controllers' strike has caused delays at Lanzarote Airport in recent days. As revealed by the European Operations Network Portal, only two aerodromes showed delays on Tuesday morning, one of them being César Manrique Airport.
The official account of Air Traffic Controllers on the X platform (formerly Twitter) denounced early this Tuesday that "unfortunately passengers end up paying the consequences of the savage lowcostization of services by Aena." In this sense, they point out that the private company that manages air control in Lanzarote, Saerco, "blocks the negotiation of the new collective agreement and therefore, leads the workers to a strike that has already lasted ten months."
Meanwhile, Saerco has informed La Voz that last Sunday there were "just over 30 hours of delays" in scheduled flights in Lanzarote.
Lanzarote Airport has positioned itself on several occasions as the European aerodrome with the most accumulated delays. In addition, the airspace of the Canary Islands is also experiencing moderate delays on the island this Tuesday.
The air traffic controllers' strike has been ongoing since February of this year to, among other things, demand an improvement in the working and salary conditions of the workers. This labor movement has emerged since then to negotiate a new agreement with Saerco.
Likewise, the company that manages the airport's control towers has denied that any flight was delayed on Monday. For its part, Aena has assured this newsroom that the trip between Barcelona and Lanzarote that was extended for 20 hours was not related to the controllers' strike.
Regarding the air traffic controllers' strike, Saerco has stated that "it does not understand the strike when there is mediation and conversations underway. This only causes problems for users."
At the same time, they have assured that they have proposed to the workers increases in the salary tables of 5.6% between 2022 and up to 2024, as well as 10% increase every three years as provided in the agreement. According to Saerco, the company has stated that it is "willing to assess a salary increase for air traffic controllers to the collective agreement of the liberalized towers sector without priorisms."
The company argues that it cannot make higher increases because it "has no more margin" and that there are controllers "who earn more than Saerco earns in a year."
