HOLIDAYMAKERS will not be the only group affected by the predicted summer of air traffic controllers’ (ATC) strikes across Europe.
Operations in the oil, gas, energy and marine sectors will be significantly impacted by the industrial action as essential workers, who travel globally to crew rigs and vessels may be unable to travel to relieve their shift counterparts.
Murray Burnett, managing director of Munro’s Travel which specialises in managed travel for the energy and marine sectors and is one of the UK’s largest independent travel agents says,
“Some reports estimate that up to 12,600 European flights could be disrupted for every day of a planned strike at a time when passenger numbers are continuing to increase post-covid. Add to this the ongoing airspace closures due to the war in Ukraine and the potential for disruption to essential workers’ travel is considerable. Employers who do not use a managed travel partner need to be aware of their duty of care to global employees who may be impacted by these strikes at any stage of their journey.
“The planned summer actions are comprehensive and include forecasted stoppages by pilots in Belgium on 15 and16 July; security officers downing tools from 18 July in Birmingham; ATC strikes in France, ongoing action during the summer months by pilots in Spain and aviation sector unions striking in Italy from 15July. Workers could be stranded at any stage of their journey and it’s important that employers can track where their employees are at all times and can act swiftly on a 24-hour basis to re-route them to their destination and rebook the new flights and arrange hotel accommodation where necessary.
“Passenger tracking tools and a managed travel partner come into their own at a time like this when companies need to know the current location of individual members of their teams both to check on their safety and how they can reroute them.”
Munro’s is a travel management company offering complete travel management for the global energy industry. Established in 1903, Munro’s is leading independent travel management company in the UK and has a client base of over 300 energy sector organisations. More about Munro’s can be found at www.munrostravel.com.
