Called by NAV workers, the impending strike could be called off after the Ministry of Economy and the Aviation and Airports Workers’ Union (SITAVA) have come to a mutual understanding about the demands made by NAV workers to be exempt from austerity cuts, according to newspaper Sol.

NAV workers are due to meet with union representatives and “everything will depend on what will be decided tonight”, a SITAVA source told PDV.

The threat of a strike by NAV workers, who include air traffic controllers, forced many airlines to reschedule or cancel many flights for Friday 29 June. Some flights would start to be affected as early as Thursday.

If the strike goes ahead, expect some disturbances:

TAP

Portuguese national airline TAP-Air Portugal has cancelled four flights on Thursday and rescheduled eleven others. The flag carrier also announced it had cancelled a total of 118 flights and connections to other European cities between 29 June and 3 July.

To avoid cancelling all of its flights TAP rescheduled a small number between 28 and 29 June. Most of these involve flights which have either been brought forward or delayed. Details on all cancelled and rescheduled flights are available on their website.

TAP Public Relations Director António Monteiro told PDV the company expects to lose “€5m a day with this strike, totalling €25m,” and that it will affect some 440,000 passengers. This occurs during what the airline sees as the high season.

EasyJet

EasyJet has also prepared contingency plans that “will involve a mix of flight cancellations, re-timings (later departures) and some flights operating from Seville and Santiago de Compostela”. Earlier this Wednesday EasyJet published a list of changes for its Friday flights only, and a new list will be published Thursday concerning Saturday flights, and so on.

Lufthansa

Lufthansa, meanwhile, has made several changes to its schedule for 29 June.

The German air carrier is planning to bring forth two flights on 29 June, one from Lisbon to Munich and another from Lisbon to Frankfurt am Main, both for 5am.

Two flights from Lisbon to Düsseldorf, initially scheduled for 10.05am and 12.40pm, will suffer a 50 minute delay.

Flights from Lisbon to Frankfurt scheduled for 9.20am and 12.10pm, will suffer a 1h25m delay.

The 7.35pm from Lisbon to Munich will also be delayed by 1 hour.

In Porto, the 6.10am flight to Frankfurt will be brought forth to 5.15am, while the 8.50am and 11.35am flights to Frankfurt will both suffer delays of 1h55m.

Two flights from Porto to Frankfurt will suffer delays of 1h55m, initially scheduled for 8.50am and 11.35am.

with Pedro Carreira Garcia