By CHRIS GRAEME and ELOISE WALTON
LISBON’S PORTELA airport suffered the worst from the Groundforce airport strike at the weekend, with the disruption causing long delays. Other airports, including Faro and Porto, also suffered delays and loss of passengers’ luggage.
The strike, organised by the Airport Handling Workers Union (Trabalhadores de Handling de Aeroportos – STHA), caused delays to scores of flights on Saturday and Sunday.
Some passengers waited up to four hours to board a TAP scheduled flight from Lisbon to Paris, while others coming in from Rio de Janeiro missed their onward flight to Rome.
STHA said that its strike had support from 85 per cent of the 2,900 employees in both Lisbon and Porto, with Groundforce loading and unloading services reaching 100 per cent and Groundforce customer help desks 99 per cent adhesion.
Even so, by 7pm on Saturday, 311 flights succeeded in taking off from Portela out of the 352 scheduled, while in Porto and Funchal all flights took off, albeit with delays which averaged out at 74 minutes at Lisbon.
What’s more, TAP comes second in the list of airline companies in Europe most likely to lose baggage with 23.5 bags per 1,000 passengers going astray between March and June 2007. Only British Airways, a much larger airline, topped the list with 28 bags. And the waiting lists and losses are far from the expectations and objectives of the various companies that work at Lisbon’s Portela airport.
According to the Director of Portela airport, Francisco Severiano, a meeting is to be held between the main companies and agencies at the airport to discuss ways of solving the myriad of problems caused by the fact that Lisbon’s airport has reached overcapacity.
One company in particular likely to dominate discussions is baggage handling company Groundforce, which received an average of 4,000 complaints a month between January and July.
Complaints from angry passengers this year are 11 per cent up on the first half of 2006 at Portugal’s five key commercial airports where Groundforce is responsible not only for baggage handling, but also provides services for check-in, as well as transporting both luggage and passengers from terminals to aircraft.
Portela simply isn’t designed to cope with the influx of passengers seen in recent years, up 10.3 per cent in July this year on 2006.
This situation has also been complicated by the increase in security rules following terrorist attacks in London and Madrid.
“We’re prepared for normal situations, but not situations like the one we saw last weekend,” says Mr Severiano.
In comparison to the problems in Lisbon, the other airports around the country were not affected nearly as much by the strike.
Francisco Pina, a spokesman at Faro airport, said: “No flight has been cancelled or diverted to another airport because of the strike.” Adding, “the delays in departures and arrivals were within the normal limits.”
Out of 56 take offs, half were delayed by more than half-an-hour due to the strike. Mr Pina also said: “A small incident occurred whereby the external staircase hit the side of a Thomas Cook plane due to take off for Gatwick and caused damage to the door frame of the aircraft. This had nothing to do with the strike and once the damaged frame was repaired, the plane left for London.”
Mateus Mendonça, a spokesman from the handling technicians syndicate in Faro, said: “The area most affected at Faro airport was the area of assistance to the aeroplanes, with 70 per cent of the staff striking.” On Sunday, only 12 out of 40 Groundforce staff were working at the airport.
At Francisco Sá Carneiro airport in Porto, around 70 per cent of Groundforce staff joined in the strike at the weekend.
António Matos, spokesman for Groundforce in Porto, said: “All flights arrived in Porto with luggage although it is possible that some passengers who flew in from Lisbon may not have found their luggage.” In response to the accusations that staff were being transferred from other departments to cover for those on strike, Mr Matos said: “I am not aware of the situation, however, all staff receive training in each area and can be moved to where they are needed most.”
The strikers want increased salaries, working hours that fulfil the minimum requirement for breaks stipulated by the Portuguese law, as well as an half-an-hour breakfast break. New strikes are already being organised for August 31 and September 1 and 2.
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