RYANAIR workers will strike in five countries from TODAY, with passengers bracing for chaos.
Staff from the budget airline in Spain, Italy, France, Portugal and Belgium will walk out in a row over pay and working conditions.
The Belgian strike was the most recently announced and will take place from today until Sunday.
It was organised to coincide with the Portuguese and Spanish strikes, both of which will happen at the same time.
A further three-day strike is also planned in Spain for next weekend, running from June 30 until July 2.
In France, the strike will be a day shorter, beginning tomorrow, Saturday.
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Meanwhile in Italy, the walk-out will take place over 24 hours, taking place on Saturday only.
UK Ryanair crew have not voted to strike, but the action will still affect the thousands of Brits hoping to head to Europe this weekend.
A Ryanair spokesperson has sought to dispel fears of widespread disruption.
They told Sun Online Travel: "Ryanair has negotiated collective agreements covering 90 per cent of our people across Europe.
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"In recent months we have been negotiating improvements to those agreements as we work through the Covid recovery phase.
"Those negotiations are going well and we do not expect widespread disruption this summer."
Despite that, some routes could be disrupted by the walk-outs this weekend.
Ryanair operates 17 planes from Charleroi and two aircraft from Brussels, which may be hit by the walk-out in Belgium.
Flights from Toulouse, Marseille and Paris Beauvais airports to Morocco, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Corsica, England, Scotland and Ireland are also likely to be affected.
The airline will keep customers informed by email or text across the weekend.
Ryanair is not the only airline facing disruption this summer.
Yesterday, it was announced that around 700 check-in and ground staff for British Airways will walk out.
The workers, all of whom are based at Heathrow and are members of the GMB and Unite unions, could down tools as early as July 8.
Heathrow passengers are among those to face particular misery so far this summer after the hub cancelled ten per cent of its plane journeys earlier this week.
The hol hell that could affect you this summer:
- Ryanair employees are due to strike in Belgium and Portugal from June 24–26, in France from June 25–26, in Italy on June 25, and in Spain from June 24–26, and from June 30-July 2
- Pilots and flight attendants from easyJet, MaltAir and CrewLink, as well as Ryanair, will walk out in Italy on June 25
- Pilots from Norway, Sweden and Denmark working for Scandinavian airline SAS could carry out coordinated strike action on June 29
- Gatwick Airport has capped the number of flight departures during the peak summer season to 825 daily flights in July and 850 in August. This could lead to the cancellation of as many as 10,000 flights this summer
- EasyJet cabin crew will strike in Spain between July 1-3
- German flag carrier Lufthansa will cancel up to 1,000 flights on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays through July
- EasyJet cabin crew in Spain may walk out again between July 15-17 and between July 29-31
- Hundreds of BA check-in and ground staff at Heathrow have voted to strike in July or August. BA operates from terminals 3 and 5 at the airport and disruption is likely
Staff working for easyJet will also walk out for nine days in July.
Airline staff who belong to the Spanish USO union announced they'll form picket lines after easyJet confirmed 11,000 flights would be axed from its summer schedules.
The strikes, three 72-hour stoppages at fortnightly intervals from July 1, would mean hundreds of crew stop work at easyJet’s bases in Barcelona, Málaga and Palma.
Workers will walk out in three phases across the month – between the 1st and 3rd, between the 15th and 17th, and finally between the 29th and 31st
It's feared there'll be a "summer of discontent" that could paralyse the travel industry throughout the summer.
The action will turn the screws on families desperate for a hard-earned break after weeks of misery and chaos at airports across the country.
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Even those who plan to holiday in the UK will face challenges.
There are fears militant rail unions are already drawing up plans for a crippling second wave of strikes in just two weeks.
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