Spanish Airport Ground Staff Postpone Indefinite Strike Until Monday, March 30

Ground staff unions at Spanish airports postponed a planned strike at handling company Groundforce from Friday, March 27, to Monday, March 30, 2026, sparing travelers the disruption at the very start of Holy Week. The three unions behind the action — CCOO, UGT, and USO — confirmed the postponement after last-minute negotiations, though they stressed the strike remains indefinite and will resume on Monday if no agreement is reached. The action will affect more than 3,000 Groundforce workers across twelve Spanish airports, with partial stoppages planned in three daily time slots: 05:00–07:00, 11:00–17:00, and 22:00–00:00. The dispute centers on what unions describe as management's failure to honor inflation-linked salary commitments written into the collective agreement.

Salary dispute pits workers against collective agreement interpretation Groundforce management and the unions are at odds over the application of two articles in the collective agreement. CCOO stated that management is using a restrictive reading of Article 96 to effectively nullify Article 94, which guarantees salary updates in line with accumulated inflation since 2022. The union described this as "a clear violation of the spirit and the letter of the signed agreement." Beyond the inflation calculation dispute, CCOO also accused management of applying cuts to agreed salary increases for certain professional groups, which it said "constitutes a direct breach of the current collective agreement and generates unjustified inequalities within the workforce itself." The union emphasized that its priority remains negotiation, but said it would not accept "business decisions that empty collective agreements of content or that transfer the cost of inflation and poor business management to workers." The twelve airports affected span the Spanish mainland and island territories: Barcelona, Madrid, Alicante, Valencia, Palma de Mallorca, Ibiza, Málaga, Gran Canaria, Tenerife North and South, Lanzarote, Fuerteventura, and Bilbao. In the Canary Islands alone, CCOO estimated that around 1,000 workers will be involved, and the union noted the strike carries "special relevance in the archipelago because of the weight of air traffic in the regional economy."

„This action represents, in our view, a clear violation of the spirit and the letter of the signed agreement” — CCOO via eldiario.es

A second strike at Menzies adds pressure across the holiday period A separate industrial action at Menzies Aviation will add further strain to Spanish airports during Holy Week. UGT called a strike at Menzies for March 28 and 29, as well as April 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6, citing what it described as the company's "organizational insolvency." Unlike the Groundforce action, the Menzies strike is called for full 24-hour stoppages on those dates. The action covers all companies in the Menzies group operating in Spain — Menzies Aviation Ibérica and Menzies Ground Services — and involves approximately 3,000 workers. UGT warned that if no agreement is reached, the strikes will extend to every weekend until the end of the year. The areas most exposed to disruption at both companies include baggage handling, boarding, and aircraft handling — services that are central to airport operations.

Strike and travel calendar, Holy Week 2026: — ; — ; — ; —

Over 70,000 flights expected as hotels near full capacity Aena expects a total of to operate during the Holy Week period, a figure slightly below the 71,166 recorded in 2025. The busiest airports will be Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas, followed by Barcelona-El Prat and Palma de Mallorca. Daily flight volumes will remain above 6,000 throughout the period, with the final days of the holiday — Sunday, April 5, and Monday, April 6 — set to be the most congested, with 6,771 and 6,652 operations respectively. The opening days of the holiday will see somewhat lower traffic: 6,130 flights on March 27, 6,070 on March 28, and 6,506 on March 29. Travelers seeking last-minute accommodation will face limited options, with hotels reported at up to 85 percent occupancy and campsites at 90 percent. The combination of near-capacity tourism infrastructure and potential ground handling disruptions makes the coming days a significant test for Spain's aviation sector at the start of its main travel season.

Holy Week is traditionally the launch of Spain's main travel season, with millions of domestic and international passengers moving through Spanish airports in the days surrounding Easter. Spain's airport network is one of the busiest in Europe, with Aena managing dozens of airports across the mainland and island territories. Ground handling strikes have periodically disrupted Spanish airports in recent years, with disputes typically centered on collective bargaining agreements covering wages and working conditions. The Canary Islands are particularly sensitive to aviation disruptions given the archipelago's dependence on air connectivity for both tourism and inter-island transport.