Europe’s travel woes deepen as strikes add to scrapped flights

A wave of airline strikes and flight cancellations is deepening Europe’s transport crisis, disrupting travel plans just as the region’s peak summer season gets under way. Walkouts in coming days at Ryanair, EasyJet, British Airways and Aeroports de Paris will add to the turmoil from staffing shortages that are leading to hours-long delays and thousands of scrapped flights. In the UK, the transport disarray has been compounded by a rail strike. Although travel demand has rebounded dramatically in Europe, what had been touted as the aviation industry’s long-awaited post-pandemic revival is being constrained by labor strife and limits in airport logistics. Chaotic scenes are playing out at airports in Amsterdam, London, Frankfurt and Paris, with lines of people waiting for hours only to be told their flights have been canceled. “It’s frustrating to deal with other agencies that put us in difficult situations,” Air France-KLM CEO Ben Smith said Thursday, after flights in Paris were hit by an earlier strike at ADP. The prospect of more mayhem looms as unions seek to capitalize on airlines’ desperation to cash in on the summer bookings surge to end losses and repair balance sheets after the pandemic plunged the sector into its worst crisis since World War II. Labor groups are pressing demands for pay increases to keep up with inflation, better working conditions, benefits and compliance with local labor laws. Story has more. <br/>