Travel CHAOS as British tourists MISS flights as security strike at Barcelona airport
BRITISH and Irish holidaymakers faced further travel misery today as security staff at Barcelona airport took industrial action - causing long queues and missed flights.
Barcelona airport in chaos after security strike causes British tourists to miss their flights home
Staff at El Prat airport were working to rule and deliberately taking the maximum of ten minutes to pass each passenger through security.
The industrial action during peak holiday season has caused around 1,000 people to miss flights at the airport in the past few days, airline bosses said.
Around 350 staff from the private firm Eulen Seguridad work at the airport controlling queues, operating scanners and searching passengers.
The industrial action during peak holiday season has caused around 1,000 people to miss flights
These long queues of passengers cannot go on for another day
They want increased staffing levels and improved working conditions, saying they are stressed and work up to 16 hours a day.
Mediation between the workers and their bosses at Eulen, at the Catalonia Labour Tribunal, broke down yesterday.
Spanish media reported the staff are taking unofficial action including delaying passengers for ten minutes each as they pass through security.
And increased action, including short hour-long strikes at key points of the day, are expected to begin on Friday.
Airport staff deliberately took the maximum of 10 minutes to pass each person through security
A spokesman for the Spanish airlines association Aceta said the action was “causing delays at security controls that are causing some companies to delay flights so they can wait for passengers stuck in queues.”
They said up to 30 per cent of flights are being delayed at the airport - because some are missing up to 50 passengers when due to take off.
Aceta chairman Antonio Pimentel said: “These long queues of passengers cannot go on for another day.”
The workers are due to meet tomorrow to discuss further measures.
El Prat is Spain’s busiest airport, with 44.1m passengers passing through last year
El Prat is Spain’s busiest airport, with 44.1m passengers passing through last year.
British and Irish passengers have already faced long delays at other airports in Spain and around Europe because of tough new border controls.
Last month the new EU controls - coupled with a lack of staff - caused Brits to miss flights out of Palma airport in Majorca.
Passengers have been warned to expect queues of “hundreds of meters” at airports including Madrid, Palma, Lisbon, Lyons, Paris Orly and Milan.
The new rules, requiring checks on passengers from non-Schengen countries including the UK and Ireland, were introduced following terror attacks in Paris and Brussels.