Italy airport strike: Hundreds of flights cancelled as walkout causes chaos

British Airways and easyJet have cancelled almost 60 Italian flights between them

At least 500 flights have been cancelled and many others delayed as a result of a 24-hour strike by Italian aviation workers.

Alitalia, the national airline, began grounding flights on Monday evening, and has axed more than 300 departures.

A dozen UK flights have been cancelled today by Alitalia – six flights between London City and Milan, four between Heathrow and Rome, and a single round trip between Heathrow and Milan Linate.

In addition, the first Wednesday morning departure from Heathrow to Rome is cancelled.

The Italian airline is telling passengers: “Alitalia has taken special measures to mitigate customer inconvenience by operating bigger aircraft on domestic and international routes, in order to rebook passengers affected by cancellations onto the first available flights on the same day.”

Alitalia says that 60 per cent of affected passengers will be able to take other flights on Tuesday.

At least 4,000 British Airways passengers have seen their flights cancelled. Six departures between Heathrow and Rome and a further six between Gatwick and Venice have been axed.

BA has also cancelled two round trips from Gatwick to Verona, and other services to Bologna, Milan, Pisa and Turin.

A spokesperson for the airline said: “We are monitoring the situation and encourage all customers to provide contact details in their bookings so that we can keep them up to date with the latest information regarding their flights.”

Thirty flights to and from Italian airports have been cancelled by easyJet. A spokesperson for the UK’s biggest budget airline said: “We are doing all possible to minimise any disruption as a result of the industrial action.

“We recommend to all customers departing from an Italian airport on Tuesday 21 May to allow extra time to pass through airport security as queues may be longer than usual.”

The industrial action is the latest blow for passengers – and also a serious financial hit for airlines. Besides losing revenue from cancelled flights, they are responsible for providing meals and, if necessary, accommodation for disrupted passengers.

Earlier in May, striking French air-traffic controllers caused the cancellation of more than 500 flights.

Last week, Belgian controllers staged a wildcat strike. And problems with the fuelling system at Manchester airport on Sunday triggered around 100 cancellations.