The skies are set to be turbulent over the next few weeks for the Iberian airlines TAP and Iberia. From 9 to 12 December, the Portuguese airline will be disrupted by industrial action. While flights from Lisbon and Porto to Funchal, the Azores and Luanda, Angola, will benefit from a minimum service, the company is unable at this time to estimate the extent of the strike and how it could affect services to French cities or routes to Africa and Brazil from the Lisbon hub.
In Spain, the launch of low cost Iberia Express is meeting with protests from the SEPLA pilots' union, which has issued strike notice for 18 and 29 December. A minimum service is expected to be put in place, and the Spanish airline points out that during the last industrial action, all flights to the Canaries and the Balearic Islands, the vast majority of intercontinental flights, and between 30% and 50% of short and medium-haul flights were maintained.
