Italy's Airport Experiences Widespread Strike Affecting Hundredds Of Flights To And From The Country

Airline passengers going to and from Italy have experienced a widespread disruption yesterday when most flights were canceled because of airport strikes. Alitalia, Italy's national airline, has canceled over 60% of its scheduled flights yesterday, April 5. Among the flights that were canceled include to and from Heathrow, Rome, and Milan.

More strikes are still scheduled all throughout the month of April, with hundreds of aviation workers protesting about proper compensation and working conditions. Alitalia already posted some reminders and other helpful information about the strike in their website.

"To minimize disruptions, Alitalia was forced to cancel several flights and modify its domestic and international flight schedule between the late evening of 4 April and the early morning of 6 April," they said. "The airline has immediately taken special measures to minimize inconvenience to its customers, by rebooking as many of the passengers affected by cancellations as possible on the first available flights."

But because of the huge volume of flights being canceled, the amount of inconvenience it caused affected passengers would probably span for days. It would take a few days before canceled flights can be redirected and the passengers are taken to their chosen destinations.

Aside from Alitalia, British Airways also canceled some of their flights due to industrial action yesterday, but not as severe as Alitalia. The Independent reports that BA flights serving Genoa, Florence and Pisa were canceled.

Among the emergency measures executed by Alitalia to serve inconvenienced passengers include rerouting, rebooking, and changing of origin and/or destination of flights. Certain requirements have to be met first though before some passengers can avail these services. According to the website, all rebooking of flights must be completed no later than April 14 of this year.

A "strike calendar" was already posted by Italy's Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport. Details show that more impending strikes are still to be expected from the transport workers in Italy.