Expatriate families in Bahrain hoping to return to Europe for the summer holidays are getting caught up in a wave of airline and public transport strike action as inflation causes labour unrest across the continent, write Reem Al Daaysi and Stanley Szecowka.
One British family-of-five has spent 24-hours languishing in an airport in Saudi Arabia after a combination of flight technical issues, pilot and crew timings, and weekend mayhem across Europe delayed their travel plans.
Surging inflation has led to millions of workers struggling with rising costs of living, prompting trade unions to demand higher wage increases, often backed by strike calls.
“It’s been a nightmare,” said a Bahrain-based mother-of-three, who asked not to be named.
And it looks like there is worse to come, Reuters reports.
Workers at several airlines, including British Airways, are also planning strikes this summer.
Ryanair cabin crew unions in Belgium, Spain and Portugal called a three-day strike which started on Friday. Staff in France and Italy were expected to walk out over the weekend too. Crews in Spain are set to strike again on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
Much of the labour unrest has focused on the transport sector as it deals with a return to travel after pandemic lockdowns.
Airlines and airport operators have also struggled with staff shortages to handle the flow of passengers as demand for travel bounces back with the end of most Covid-19 restrictions.
Pilot and cabin crew unions of Brussels Airlines, the Belgian subsidiary of Lufthansa, also started a strike on Thursday. Over three days, Brussels Airlines expects to cancel about 60 per cent of its 533 flights.
The expat family from Bahrain was travelling this weekend with Lufthansa to Manchester, via Frankfurt, with one short stopover to pick up passengers from Saudi.
“The flight was delayed for extra service in Bahrain by 45 minutes,” the fraught mother-of-three told the GDN. “We arrived in Saudi Arabia at 1.30am yesterday but were kept on the tarmac with staff stating there was a technical problem.
“At 5.40am the captain said if they were not in the air within 20 minutes the crew could not fly as duty hours would have been exceeded. It didn’t … and we were stuck.
“We’ve been told there is nothing they can do regarding alternatives because of the cancellation of many flights in Frankfurt and strikes in Brussels.”
The family hoped to have set off in the early hours of this morning and will have to try and make forwarding flight plans once they land in Germany, as well as change already booked UK car rental arrangements.
Car rental is probably safer than relying on the trains. Passengers across Great Britain faced a weekend of disrupted train services as a result of the biggest rail strike in 30 years.
The RMT union has yet to call further strikes, but train drivers from the Aslef union will strike next weekend on Greater Anglia rail services. More strike ballots are being held by the TSSA union.
And, London Underground workers may strike again this summer after voting to renew a strike mandate for another six months, the Guardian reports.
With inflation running at more than eight per cent in the euro area, a 40-year-high of 9.1pc in Britain, and in double digits across some central and eastern European economies, authorities are worried of a wage-price spiral developing in which higher wage demands add to inflationary pressures.
Travel media has been quick to issue alerts to passengers. Got European travel plans this summer? Don’t forget to pack your passport, sunscreen and plenty of patience, said the Associated Press.
And, AFP added that airline giant Lufthansa is planning to cut more than 3,000 flights this summer due to staff shortages and strikes.
&uuid=(email))