Strike action could hit summer holiday flights in Europe

European flights during the summer holiday period could be affected by a strike by air traffic controllers.

Eurocontrol, which manages flights over Europe, has said one of its unions could take industrial action, although no dates have been announced yet.

Negotiations are continuing with the union and other unions, Eurocontrol said.

It said it was "making every effort to keep negotiations open and to find a constructive way forward".

Eurocontrol said one of its trade unions, Union Syndicale Bruxelles, had "announced a period of six months during which industrial action could take place".

It said the action could take place in its Network Manager Operations Centre, which handles more than 10 million flights a year.

Prior to the pandemic, it had daily peaks managing more than 37,000 flights, and Eurocontrol said the centre played a pivotal role in managing, streamlining and improving air traffic.

Eurocontrol stressed that it was in "ongoing dialogue" with the union.

"As no notice of specific industrial action has been received, it is premature to speculate on any potential impact," it said.

Last summer, holidaymakers were affected by sustained disruption to flights due to staff shortages, and across 2022 as a whole more than a third of UK flights were delayed.

Having axed thousands of jobs during the worst of the Covid pandemic, many aviation businesses including airports could not get new staff in place quickly enough.

This summer, having raised staffing levels, disruption instead could come from industrial action.