Easter travel chaos
European travel was still rattled by strikes and delays over Easter, which is important if you're booking short‑notice flights or connections. An easyJet cabin‑crew walkout on April 6 hit Paris Orly, Charles de Gaulle, Nice, Nantes, Lyon and Bordeaux and left holiday schedules scrambled, while Heathrow also reported widespread delays and stranded passengers across Europe ( ). Italy then faced fresh disruption on April 9–10, with strikes snarling Rome and Milan airports and thousands of travelers delayed, even as easyJet said it had operated a record‑busy Easter (30,000 flights, 5.2 million seats) and saw shares jump nearly 10% after reporting the surge ( ).
People who thought the Easter rush was ending on Monday ran into the opposite problem: on April 6, easyJet cabin crew in France walked out for 24 hours across Paris Orly, Paris Charles de Gaulle, Nice, Nantes, Lyon, and Bordeaux, right as holiday return traffic was peaking. (connexionfrance.com) That strike was not a single-airport glitch. It hit all six of easyJet’s French bases at once, which is like pulling workers from every spoke of the same wheel and then expecting the hub to keep spinning normally. (thetraveler.org) French coverage said the UNAC union filed the notice for the full day from 12:01 a.m. to 11:59 p.m. on April 6, and some reports warned that 25% to 40% of flights from those bases could be canceled. (aviationa2z.com; visahq.com) Then the disruption jumped the Channel. London Heathrow reported more than 300 delayed or canceled flights on April 9, and those missed rotations left passengers stuck not just in Britain but across connecting routes in Europe. (airhelp.ca; thetraveler.org) Open-source delay trackers counted 1,619 delays and 39 cancellations across six countries on April 9, with Heathrow alone logging 284 delayed departures and 12 cancellations. When one airport that size slips, later flights inherit the problem because the aircraft, crew, and gate are all arriving late together. (visahq.com) Italy added a fresh choke point on April 9 and April 10. Delays spread through Rome Fiumicino and Milan Malpensa on April 9, and a separate four-hour strike by ENAV air traffic control staff and Techno Sky staff was set for 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. local time on Friday, April 10. (airhelp.com; wego.com) That timing matters because a four-hour air traffic control stoppage does not end after four hours. Airlines still have to reposition aircraft, rebuild crew schedules, and rebook passengers, so afternoon trouble can spill into the evening and the next morning. (adept.travel; ftnnews.com) The odd part is that demand itself has been booming. easyJet said it was running its biggest Easter program ever, with more than 30,000 flights and 5.2 million seats during the school-holiday period, which means the system was already packed before the strikes and delays landed. (thetraveler.org) Investors liked the demand story even while passengers were living the disruption story. easyJet shares were trading around 391.59 pence on April 10, up sharply from 361.40 pence at the open shown in market data, after the airline’s recent updates pointed to strong bookings and higher passenger volumes. (google.com; corporate.easyjet.com) So the picture across Europe this week was not “one bad airport” or “one airline strike.” It was a chain reaction: French cabin-crew action on April 6, Heathrow disruption on April 9, and Italian air-traffic stoppages on April 10, all hitting during one of the busiest travel windows of the spring. (connexionfrance.com; thetraveler.org; wego.com)
