The Spanish authorities threatened on Monday to punish the low-cost carrier Vueling by the chaos caused in the Barcelona airport, which could again worsen on Tuesday when the company canceled 18 flights because of a strike in France.
“an event like this not you can go for free to anyone,” said the Minister of Development, Ana Pastor, Monday considering opening a sanctioning process against the Spanish airline.
Pastor led a meeting with representatives of Vueling during Monday afternoon, in which the Spanish government demanded the company to present in the coming hours a contingency plan for the entire summer, to avoid cancellations and delays on flights that have affected thousands of people.
on Monday the situation stabilized somewhat, with only two cancellations of 700 flights in total, a connection back and forth between Brussels and Barcelona-El Prat airport, its main base.
But on Tuesday the situation will flare up, as the company will eliminate 18 flights scheduled to and from Barcelona, which connect to destinations in France including Paris, Lyon, Marseille, Nice, Bordeaux and Nantes.
the cancellations are due to “a national strike in France which causes restrictions in our normal operations,” the company said in a statement.
other flights from other parts of Europe to France could also be affected, warned Vueling.
on Saturday and Sunday more than thirty flights with Spanish European destinations and and many were canceled other were diverted or operated with long delays in the start of summer vacation.
According to the Spanish press, more than 8,000 passengers were affected, creating huge queues of travelers in the offices of the airline especially in Barcelona, many of them lamenting the lack of information.
the commercial director of Vueling, David Garcia, said Monday on the radio Cadena Ser that a strike by air traffic controllers on 28 June in France, one of their main destinations, was “the root cause” of their difficulties because the company tried to relocate its customers on other flights already full.
Vueling, created in 2004 and subsidiary of IAG (which also owns British Airways or Iberia among others) transported in 2015 to almost 37% of passengers who passed through El Prat and a total of 24.8 million passengers, an increase of 15% annually, according to its annual report.
these problems come just when Spain, the third largest tourist destination, begins the high season with the potential to set a new record of visitors, attracting tourists avoid other Mediterranean locations now considered too dangerous because of the risk of attacks.
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