Spain airport strikes cause Easter chaos for Irish travellers - expert tips

Tens of thousands of Irish holidaymakers have begun travelling to Spain for the first major weekend of the summer - but they may encounter strikes by ground staff that have already triggered significant chaos across 12 principal airports. Reports suggest waits of up to five hours at baggage reclaim areas this morning.

With Spain's three primary transport unions organising a sequence of industrial action throughout the Easter period, travellers on (predominantly domestic services currently) have been landing without their belongings at popular destinations including the Canaries and Malaga.

The disruption is expected to extend throughout the weekend and into the following week as the unions select the busiest period of the year thus far to exert maximum pressure on Spain's largest ground handling firm.

Irish passengers could face a 'baggage lottery' at impacted airports including Barcelona-El Prat, Madrid-Barajas, Ibiza, Palma de Mallorca, Gran Canaria, Tenerife, Fuerteventura, Bilbao, Lanzarote, Alicante, Valencia, and Malaga.

The Groundforce industrial action affected these airports for 24-hours on Good Friday (3 April), with additional walkouts scheduled over the Easter period.

Strikes are timetabled for Monday, Wednesday, and Friday during three busy windows: 5am-7am, 11am-5pm, and 10pm-midnight, reports Cork Beo.

Nevertheless, there are methods to navigate the disruption - and the travel specialists at UK firm Send My Bag, who provide door-to-door baggage shipping from Ireland, have outlined four recommendations to ensure your luggage reaches the same destination and time as you do.

Darren Johnston at Send My Bag states: "These strikes have hit at the worst possible time for families! When baggage handlers walk out, it creates a massive backlog. Even if your flight lands on time, you could be looking at several hours of waiting at a standstill carousel, or worse, your bags being left behind entirely as ground crews struggle to keep up with the volume of holiday traffic."

Darren recommends passengers implement these precautions:

Reports today indicate some travellers at the principal Spanish airports are experiencing delays of up to 4 to 5 hours to retrieve their luggage from carousels, with additional accounts of baggage vanishing altogether.