SAERCO strike hits 14 airports
- Air traffic controllers at SAERCO began an indefinite strike on April 17 at nine Spanish airports, including Seville, Lanzarote and Fuerteventura, after failed talks. - Spain’s Transport Ministry said the walkout covers 104 workers at SAERCO towers, with minimum-service rules imposed to keep essential flights operating. - The dispute centers on staffing cuts, fatigue and scheduling at privatized towers. (usca.es)
Air traffic controllers employed by SAERCO started an indefinite strike on April 17 at nine Spanish airports, not 14, after unions said talks with the company broke down. (usca.es) (transportes.gob.es) The airports named in the Transport Ministry’s minimum-services resolution are Jerez de la Frontera, A Coruña, Madrid-Cuatro Vientos, Seville, Vigo, El Hierro, Fuerteventura, Lanzarote and La Palma. The ministry said the strike began at 00:00 on April 17 and runs seven days a week with no end date. (transportes.gob.es) The same resolution says 104 workers are affected. Spain imposed minimum services to protect routes under public-service obligations, flights to or from non-peninsular territories and other essential operations. (transportes.gob.es) USCA and Comisiones Obreras, known as CCOO, said they called the strike over staffing shortages, canceled vacations, short-notice shift changes and unclear rest periods. The unions said those conditions create fatigue and “impact” operational safety. (usca.es) Those towers are part of Spain’s liberalized airport-control system, where some regional towers are run by private providers instead of the state operator ENAIRE. Aena said in 2020 that SAERCO held the tower-control contracts for Vigo, Jerez, Seville, A Coruña, Cuatro Vientos, La Palma, Fuerteventura and Lanzarote. (aena.es) That contract history helps explain the mismatch in some travel advisories. Ibiza is one of Spain’s liberalized towers, but Aena’s 2020 award shows Ibiza’s tower contract went to FerroNATS, not SAERCO. (aena.es) USCA’s April 7 notice initially described the dispute as affecting SAERCO-managed towers and framed it as a structural labor conflict after years of reduced staffing. By April 14, the ministry’s formal minimum-services order narrowed the active strike coverage to the nine airport workplaces listed in the resolution. (usca.es) (transportes.gob.es) For travelers, that means disruption risk is concentrated at those nine regional airports rather than across Spain’s biggest hubs. The strike is still open-ended, but flights covered by minimum-service rules are supposed to keep moving while the labor dispute continues. (transportes.gob.es)
