This Monday, Lanzarote Airport became, once again, a waiting room. The unfavorable weather conditions have produced delays of up to 3 hours in the scheduled island flights during the morning. This has caused many of the users who had their flights canceled due to the Binter strike on Sunday to have also spent the morning at the airport.
More than 70 flights and about 4,500 passengers have been affected in the Canary airports as a result of the strike at the company Atlántica de Handling called by the unions Unión General de Trabajadores (UGT) and Comisiones Obreras (CC.OO.), according to sources from Binter Canarias and the trade union organizations.
The situation, which during Sunday morning was relatively normal, with some delays of about 25 minutes, became complicated throughout the afternoon, especially at Fuerteventura Airport, where 8 connections with Gran Canaria (4 outbound and 4 return flights) had to be canceled, according to the Director of Communication of Binter, José Luís Reina.
Also, the waiting time increased up to one hour and there have even been cases of delays of 1.5 hours, although there have also been some flights that have operated on time, the same sources said.
The airline confirmed that the minimum services established for this day of strike, the third carried out by the workers and the first carried out throughout the day, have been met, except at Fuerteventura airport, where the causes of these cancellations will be studied, Reina pointed out.
The unions calling the strike, which have put the number of affected passengers at 7,000, have insisted that many travelers have opted for other means of transport or other airlines. Thus, during Sunday morning there was an average occupancy on flights that did not reach ten percent, with cases of planes that departed with 5 or 6 passengers, the trade union organizations said in a note.
They also agree with the company that the situation became complicated from 6:00 p.m., with the increase in air traffic, when delays have increased, which in some cases have reached 90 minutes.
Aftermath of the Strike
Until past half past eleven on Monday morning, no flight has been able to depart to Gran Canaria and Tenerife. According to Adena, the situation could be repeated throughout the afternoon with Binter travelers, as delays in flights due to strong gusts of wind, in Lanzarote and Fuerteventura, have complicated the relocation of passengers who had their connections canceled on the day of the strike.
As for arrivals, so far two flights have landed with delays. One from Tenerife Norte with a three-hour delay and another from Gran Canaria, which landed in Lanzarote an hour later than planned.
No negotiating proposal
The workers' representatives also have denied that a meeting is scheduled for next week and state that they have not received any invitation or any negotiating proposal from the company and warn that they continue with the same approaches "as the first day of the strike" and the planned strike days are maintained "if Binter does not remedy it", which will coincide with the Christmas holidays.
