Airline Jet2 issues statement over strike at major Europe destination

Holiday operator Jet2 has issued a statement on strike action planned for a key Europe holiday destination. The airline spoke out as travellers face a number of issues over the next few weeks with potential disruption to holiday plans.

Jet2 said that destination Venice was facing industrial action where Italian ground handling staff are set to walk out on July 5. It said: “We wanted to let you know that we are aware of Industrial Strike Action taking part in Venice on 5th July 2024, supported by third party handling services.

“We are not expecting this action to have any significant impact to our flights arriving or departing from Venice and all Jet2.com flights are expected to depart as scheduled. Rest assured, in the event of flight disruption our dedicated Operations teams are always working hard behind the scenes at our UK-Based HQ to get you on your way as soon as possible.”

Elsewhere travellers in Germany are being hit by a fresh round of strikes this week (June 27 and 8) where train drivers’ union GDL has staged a series of strikes. The latest rail strikes coincide with industrial action by Lufthansa airline’s ground staff on Thursday and Friday, which will likely disrupt travel plans for thousands of passengers.

The first passenger rail strike will begin at 0100 GMT on Thursday and last 35 hours, GDL union head Claus Weselsky said, adding that information on further worker action would follow.

“With this, we begin a so-called strike wave,” he told reporters. Also Aer Lingus has confirmed it is to cancel 120 flights scheduled for this weekend due to a pilots’ eight-hour strike happening on June 29th.

A spokesperson for the airline said it will impact 15,000 customers on short-haul services. A previously announced, indefinite work-to-rule from June 26th – which would mean pilots would not engage in overtime or out-of-hours duties – saw the airline cancel 124 flights.

In another blow for travellers it today emerged that company Youtravel announced that all bookings will be cancelled up to and including 26 July. It said it had taken the ‘difficult’ decision to extend cancellations beyond 5 July while talks to secure its future continue.

Youtravel is owned by German company FTI Group, whose tour operator brand FTI Touristik filed for insolvency earlier this month. Many UK travel agents use products provided by the group so potentially thousands of travellers could have their plans thrown into disarray. They will be contacted by the place they booked their holiday within coming days if changes need to be made.

In a statement, Youtravel said: We have made the difficult decision to cancel all bookings until and including the 26th July 2024. We understand the inconvenience this may cause and sincerely apologize for any disruption. Any active bookings in the Youtravel system for arrivals up to and including 26 July will be automatically cancelled without any charges by Monday 1 July.”