IAG subsidiary Iberia announces strike action

FTSE 100-listed International Airlines Group's (AIG) Spanish subsidiary Iberia has cancelled 40 per cent of the flights it had scheduled for Monday following strike action undertaken by its employees.

An update issued by the Iberia press office at 11 o'clock in the morning reported that 54 of the scheduled 154 flights had been "taken off" on Monday "in keeping with the minimum services required by law during the strike by airline employees".

"Iberia is making every effort to find seats on Iberia or other airlines for passengers booked on flights cancelled because of the strike, and is making full refunds when no alternatives are available or acceptable to the customer.

"Alternative flights were found for 70,000 customers whose flights for this week were cancelled," the company update continued.

The news comes six days after the Spanish airline commenced a formal process of collective redundancy, with 3,807 jobs earmarked to be affected.

The redundancy announcement came 11 days after Union General de Trabajadores (UGT), the trade union representing members of staff at Iberia, rejected a the last of several proposed packages of cuts aimed at bringing the ailing airline into a profitable position.

In the six months to June 30th 2012, Iberia made an operating loss of €263m, working out at approximately €1.0m in operating losses per day.

In IAG's half-yearly results for the six months to June 30th, Willie Walsh, IAG Chief Executive Officer, commented: "There remains a stark difference in the performance of our subsidiaries. British Airways made an operating profit despite rising fuel process while Iberia's losses deepened."

"Iberia's problems are deep and structural and the economic environment reinforces the need for permanent structural change," he added at the time.

IAG's share price was down 1.18% to 225.20p at 14:22 on Monday.

MF