EasyJet pilots in Spain began a strike on Friday to demand the restoration of working conditions before the Covid-19 pandemic, ending in an agreement two weeks after cabin crew ended a similar strike.

This new easyJet strike, in the middle of the high tourist season, comes on top of a strike by flight crews at another low-cost airline, Irish Ryanair, where two Spanish unions have called for strike action until early January 2023.

At Easyjet, the strike will take place from Friday to Sunday this week and the following week, then from Saturday 27 August to Monday 29 August, in Barcelona (North-East), Malaga, Mediterranean Islands and Palma de Mallorca. Mallorca and Menorca.

On Friday, the first day of the strike, eight of the British company’s flights were cancelled, the majority at Barcelona airport.

Ryanair has canceled 20 flights in Spain since Monday, according to the USO union.

“The strike is the only alternative in the face of (easyJet’s) refusal to restore the conditions that pilots had before the Covid-19 pandemic and to negotiate a second collective agreement,” the Sepla union explained in a press release.

The Spanish Ministry of Transport has established a minimum service obligation of 57 to 61% to “match the interest of citizens and their mobility needs with the right of workers to strike,” he explained in a press release.

In its press release, the Sepla union justified that easyJet’s pilots had taken a pay cut “in order to guarantee not only employment but also the survival of the company in Spain” during the “worst months of the pandemic”.

But, according to the union, easyJet has now returned to “similar” pre-pandemic flights.

The British company’s flight crew ended a strike earlier this month on July 28 after winning a 22% pay rise in three years, according to the USO union.