Italy Aviation Strike Grounds Hundreds of Flights as easyJet Crew Walk Out for 24 Hours

A 24-hour nationwide strike by easyJet's Italian pilots and cabin crew is disrupting air travel across Italy on Friday, grounding flights as overlapping walkouts hit airports, air traffic control and ground staff on one of the busiest travel days of the season.

Main News Report

The stoppage runs from 00:00 to 23:59 Italian time on 16 October 2026 and was called by the USB Lavoro Privato union, the private-sector arm of the Unione Sindacale di Base. The strike had first been filed for 15 October and was moved to 16 October.

easyJet has cancelled around 200 UK flights to and from Rome and Milan, according to reports in The Star, The Scotsman and the Stornoway Gazette. The airline says it is working to move affected passengers onto other flights. ITA Airways separately confirmed that 13 direct flights between London and Italian destinations are cancelled.

The easyJet walkout is only part of the disruption. Friday also brings stoppages by airport workers at Pisa Galileo Galilei and Florence Peretola airports, a 24-hour strike by security staff at Venice Marco Polo airport, and a separate action by Poste Air Cargo employees, according to passenger-rights group AirHelp and strike-monitoring service StrikeTracker. Italy's air navigation provider ENAV is also staging a four-hour stoppage from 13:00 to 17:00 Italian time, affecting all Italian airspace, including flights that only overfly Italy en route to Greece, Cyprus, Malta and Turkey.

Italian law treats air transport as an essential service, so departures scheduled between 07:00 and 10:00 in the morning and between 18:00 and 21:00 in the evening are protected and must operate. Flights outside those windows carry the highest risk of cancellation. The ENAC civil aviation authority publishes its list of guaranteed flights at enac.gov.it.

Background Context

The dispute centres on a contract renewal for easyJet staff in Italy signed on 15 September. An internal consultation of pilots and flight attendants run by other unions backed the agreement, but USB Lavoro Privato says the results were published late and its request to observe the vote was refused. The union also objects to the deal's effect on the 13th-month salary, real wage increases and union representation.

Italy has a formal system for managing transport strikes: every action is filed in the register of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport, and ENAC sets out which flights are guaranteed before each stoppage. A previous ENAV strike on 30 September saw ITA Airways cancel 29 per cent of its flights, showing how quickly air traffic control action spreads delays beyond the striking airports.

Reactions and Statements

• easyJet: The airline told passengers it is "working to ensure anyone affected will be moved to other flights", as reported by UK regional press.
• AirHelp: The passenger-rights group notes that a strike by an airline's own staff is not treated as extraordinary circumstances under European passenger-rights rules, so compensation under EC 261 of up to 600 euros may apply to the easyJet disruption depending on the flight. Airport worker stoppages are treated differently, and travellers are advised to keep boarding passes and cancellation notices.
• Travel advisories: Strike-monitoring services advise anyone flying to, from or inside Italy on Friday to check their flight status before leaving for the airport, and to compare bookings against ENAC's protected-flight list. Services on Thursday and Saturday are expected to run fuller than usual as travellers shift trips off strike day.

Why This News Matters

The strike matters because of its scale and timing. Four separate industrial actions land in the same 24-hour window, and Friday marks the start of the weekend travel rush, when rebooking options are already scarce. The ENAV stoppage extends the impact beyond Italy's borders, since any flight routing over Italian airspace, including holiday routes to the eastern Mediterranean, can be delayed. For travellers, the episode is a reminder of how quickly European aviation labour disputes can cascade across the continent's tightly linked networks.

Future Developments

• Strike end: The easyJet walkout ends at 23:59 tonight; knock-on delays and repositioned aircraft may still affect Saturday morning schedules.
• France next: A five-day aviation strike in France begins on Saturday 17 October and runs through 21 October, involving Air France, Transavia France and Corsair pilots and cabin crew, which could compound disruption for travellers crossing Europe.
• Passenger claims: Affected easyJet passengers will now test whether the disruption qualifies for compensation under EC 261, with airlines expected to argue over which cancellations were caused by the crew strike and which by the airport and ATC actions.
• PakInsight Hub will continue following the Italy disruption and the French strike as the weekend unfolds.

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