200-plus Irish air passengers stranded by strike

More than 200 Irish air passengers were stranded overnight in Barcelona following an unofficial dispute by workers at Spanish airline Iberia.

Iberia ground staff and baggage-handlers at El Prat airport in Barcelona stopped work yesterday morning in protest over looming job losses.

Almost 2,000 jobs at the airline are at risk after the loss earlier this week of Iberia's contract to service the aircraft of all carriers using the airport.

Workers blocked the runway and all flights to and from the airport were stopped. The strike affected only Barcelona airport yesterday, but there is a danger it could spread to other Spanish airports.

Two Aer Lingus flights and two Iberia flights were operating on the Dublin to Barcelona route yesterday. Outgoing flights were diverted to other airports in France and Spain, but the return flights were cancelled.

With no resolution to the dispute in sight last night, Aer Lingus decided not to fly in and out of Barcelona airport today and will instead use Girona airport 100km north of Barcelona.

An Aer Lingus flight leaving Dublin with 183 passengers was diverted to Toulouse yesterday, while 210 Aer Lingus passengers were left stranded in Barcelona airport from around 9am yesterday morning when their 11.40am flight to Dublin was cancelled. The airline made attempts to secure a bus to bring the passengers to Toulouse but was unsuccessful, and all 210 passengers were told yesterday evening that they would have to make their own way to Girona for a flight this morning.

Passengers stranded in Barcelona yesterday were not told that they would be flying home from Girona until 7pm local time last night, around 10 hours after most had arrived at the airport.

"Apparently, we have to make our own way to Girona and find somewhere to stay tonight. I don't even know if everyone has the money to do that. It would be impossible to get somewhere in Barcelona tonight because of the strike," one Aer Lingus passenger said.

The passenger, who was travelling with five children, said there were no Aer Lingus staff available at Barcelona and they had to ring the airline's Dublin office to get any information. "It's absolute bedlam here, the place is packed, but we couldn't go anywhere because we didn't know what was going on . . . Their [Aer Lingus's] handling of this situation has been very poor," he said.

An Aer Lingus spokeswoman said there were two representatives in Barcelona assisting passengers yesterday.

It was "unfortunate" that passengers had to travel to Girona, she said, but anyone who incurred out-of-pocket expenses could file a claim with the company on their return to Ireland.