Warning to Brit holidaymakers planning Spain holidays – the dates to avoid

SPANISH airports could be “plunged into chaos” over Christmas as unions prepare to announce a series of strikes.

Staff from airport authority AENA are planning walkouts over the Christmas and New Year period that threaten to ruin people’s festive breaks.

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The strikes will be staged on December 22, 23, 30 and 31 and January 6 and 8.

The union CCOO has predicted the walkouts will cause “chaos” and said that every airport in Spain will be affected.

More than 10,000 AENA workers are expected to take part in the action.

The CCOO say the strikes are taking place because of a dispute relating to productivity rewards.

Staff claim that air traffic has returned to 2019 levels, and in some airports it has exceeded them.

They have warned that if the issues are not resolved soon, the strikes could continue throughout the start of next year, including until Easter.

The union said that the call for a strike next week “could plunge Spanish airports into chaos in the middle of the Christmas holidays.”

They said: “The distribution of dividends to private shareholders has been authorised and the workers of the AENA group demand, therefore, the recovery of what we are owed.

“Despite the good words of the AENA group and the Ministry of Transport, the delay in reaching an agreement is causing a lot of uneasiness among the workers and the unions present at the negotiating table.”

Strikes are also threatening to halt travel in the UK as well, with border staff staging walkouts over the festive period.

In a blow to Brits hoping to unite with loved ones for Christmas, workers at major UK airports will walk out from December 23 until Boxing Day.

Then further strikes will take place between December 28 and New Year’s Eve.

More than a fifth of flights could be grounded, with 15,000 border staff members expected to take part, which could leave those with plans for Christmas breaks completely stuck.

Airlines have been told by officials to cancel up to 30 per cent of journeys scheduled on strike days to limit airport chaos, the Times has reported.

The airports affected will be Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester, Birmingham, Cardiff and Glasgow airports and the port of Newhaven.

Alongside Border Force staff, train workers will begin a fresh round of industrial action on the 13-14 and 16-17 December.

Then, from 6pm on Christmas Eve to 6am on 27 December British railways will grind to a halt AGAIN.

Baggage handler walkouts will also affect travel at Heathrow for 72 hours from 4am on December 16, affecting ten major airlines from terminals 2, 3 and 4.

These include Air Canada, American Airlines, Lufthansa, Swiss Air, Air Portugal, Austrian Airlines, Qantas, Egypt Air, Aer Lingus and Finnair.

Elsewhere, Eurostar staff are striking on 18, 22 and 23 December.

It means people travelling to see loved ones over the festive period will have to plan trips carefully, or use alternative travel methods, in order to avoid cancellations.

Meanwhile, airports have already been thrown into chaos by snowy weather.

Flights have been cancelled and passengers were forced to sleep on airport floors.

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