A spiral of worker strikes in ‘s crucial aviation sector and cancelled flights at a time when millions of travellers are looking to escape for the summer, threaten the sector’s tentative recovery. Airports and airlines are buckling under the pressure of demand pent up during the pandemic that has been unleashed on understaffed and stretched operations across Europe.

– Cabin crew – A coordinated strike by flight attendants in five European countries has thrown a spotlight on volatile labour relations at low cost airlines. “It’s June and colleagues are already exhausted,” said Damien Mourgues , SNPNC trade union representative at Ryanair.

“Our basic salary is 854 euros (USD 900) with variables of 8.50 euros per hour” flown, he said. In Spain, “we have a basic salary of only 950 euros” and “when you don’t fly, you earn 950 euros, that’s all,” complained Pier Luigi Copellon, a steward based in Barcelona for 14 years. 

At France’s Transavia and Spain’s Volotea the prospect of summer strikes is a growing possibility. At Brussels Airlines, which is on strike on Friday, “a crew member works between 50-60 hours over five days on average,” said Claudia de Coster , a cabin purser and a representative of Belgium’s Setca-FGTB union. 

– Airport security officers – Frontline airport security is suffering more than any other aviation workforce from understaffing as traffic picks up. Baggage and passenger screening officers at inspection points are being forced to manage massive footfall with fewer hands on deck than before.

“We end up with two or three instead of five per security checkpoint,” Said Abdou employee at Paris Orly airport and a representative of the CGT union. “The pace is so fast. Securitas had hired 17 people recently, they did a day and they didn’t come back — it was too hard,” he said.

Eight of his colleagues suffered burn-out, he said, because they were refused leave this summer. Said Abdou earns 1,500 euros after taxes and deductions, paid 13 times a year, and an individual performance bonus of 500 euros per year after 18 years of service.