Ryanair passengers flying to, from or within Spain face months of potential disruption as a nationwide series of partial walkouts by the airline’s Spanish ground handling partner continues to bite on key travel days.

Although most flights are still operating, the strike windows on Sundays and other peak days through 31 December are creating bottlenecks at check-in and baggage belts, with delays sometimes rippling across the carrier’s tightly timed European network.

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What is happening with Ryanair’s Spanish ground handling strike

The industrial action centers on Azul Handling, Ryanair’s ground services subsidiary in Spain, which provides check-in, boarding and baggage handling at many of the airline’s bases.

The UGT union has called a nationwide series of partial strikes that began on 15 August 2025 and are scheduled to run until 31 December 2025.

The walkouts take place on fixed days each week, including Sundays, and within specific time blocks that coincide with the busiest waves of departures and arrivals.

According to union announcements and advisories from several European foreign ministries, staff are walking out every Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday in three daily windows: from 05:00 to 09:00, from 12:00 to 15:00 and from 21:00 to 23:59.

These stoppages target the early morning rush, the midday churn and late evening rotations that underpin Ryanair’s high-frequency, quick‑turnaround model across Europe.

The action is nationwide in scope. It covers all Azul Handling bases and work centers where the company serves the Ryanair group, including major Spanish airports such as Madrid Barajas, Barcelona El Prat, Malaga, Alicante, Valencia, Seville, Palma de Mallorca, Tenerife South, Lanzarote, Ibiza, Girona and Santiago de Compostela.

Local airport information services and travel advisories are warning that ground services, not the flights themselves, are the primary pressure point.

Spanish law obliges operators to maintain minimum services during strikes, and Ryanair has repeatedly stated that it expects to operate its published flight schedule.

However, even if departures and arrivals are not cancelled en masse, reduced staffing in the strike windows can slow check-in, boarding, aircraft turnaround and baggage return, adding stress to what is already one of Europe’s busiest winter travel seasons.

Why Sundays and fixed strike windows matter for travelers

For passengers, the most visible effect of the Azul Handling stoppages is timing. Because the strikes are limited to blocks of several hours, many flights outside these windows can run relatively normally.

Within them, however, the combination of lower staffing and strong travel demand on Sundays and holiday periods can create long queues and pressure on airport facilities even before any flight is officially delayed.

Sundays are particularly sensitive. They are among the heaviest travel days in Ryanair’s schedule, especially in Spain where weekend city breaks, island returns and domestic visits all converge.

Morning departures between 06:00 and 09:00 are crucial for feeding the airline’s European network, while late evening returns help aircraft and crews get back to base for the next day’s rotations.

If ground teams are reduced when those waves hit, each boarding or turn can take a little longer, and the effect multiplies as the day wears on.

The structured nature of the walkouts also shapes how disruption is felt. Passengers arriving at the airport just before a strike window begins may see staff levels taper off during their check-in or boarding process.

Those arriving as a window ends may still find backlogs at bag drop or security, because airport processes can take time to recover even after workers return to duty.

Travelers connecting on separate tickets, such as those piecing together a low‑cost flight to a long‑haul departure, are especially vulnerable if a small delay in Spain eats into their onward buffer time.

Travel industry analysts note that this pattern of partial walkouts has become increasingly common in European aviation disputes.

Rather than shutting airports outright for a full day, unions focus on key peaks to maximize visibility and bargaining power while limiting financial penalties on workers.

For passengers, that often translates into uncertainty and delays rather than straightforward cancellations that would automatically trigger rebooking or compensation.

Even when a Ryanair flight in Spain eventually departs, the knock-on effects can be wide. The airline relies on fast turnarounds, often of 25 minutes or less, to keep aircraft flying multiple sectors a day.

If ground staff shortages in a strike window slow the unloading of baggage, the cleaning of the cabin or the boarding of the next wave of passengers, a departure might push back by 30 minutes, 60 minutes or more.

Once that happens, the same aircraft may arrive late at its next destination, where local ground handlers are not on strike but must still cope with an aircraft arriving outside its scheduled slot.

That in turn can interfere with stand allocation, gate availability and curfew restrictions at busier airports. In some cases, a single delayed rotation early on a Sunday morning in Spain can ripple through three or four later flights touching destinations in France, Germany, the United Kingdom or Italy.

Ryanair has insisted in public statements that minimum service requirements and internal contingency planning will allow it to protect the bulk of its timetable.

However, aviation unions and passenger groups counter that, while outright cancellations may be limited, customers must still be prepared for extended queues and arrival delays fueled by these operational bottlenecks.

Observers at airports such as Palma de Mallorca, Malaga and Barcelona have already reported days where flights operated but check-in and baggage services struggled to keep pace with demand.

This cascading model of disruption is particularly challenging for travelers who assume that a “flight operating as scheduled” guarantees a smooth journey.

In practice, a plane may leave its stand slightly late after a slow turnaround, circle before being given a landing slot at a crowded airport, and then wait on arrival while a stretched baggage team unloads previous flights.

The end result is that door-to-door travel time stretches, even if the carrier avoids formally cancelling a service.

What unions and Azul Handling say is driving the dispute

Behind the scenes, the Azul Handling strike is the culmination of months of rising tension between unions and the company over working conditions, disciplinary measures and job security.

UGT, one of Spain’s largest union federations, accuses the ground services provider of abusing supplementary hours, relying heavily on part‑time contracts and imposing disproportionate sanctions on staff who refuse to work non‑mandatory overtime.

Union statements and local media reports highlight cases where employees say they faced disciplinary suspensions of up to several weeks without pay for declining extra shifts or questioning rota changes.

They also point to what they describe as “fraudulent” part‑time arrangements that, in their view, allow the company to cover a near‑full‑time workload without granting the stability and benefits associated with permanent posts.

Azul Handling rejects characterizations of widespread abuse and insists that it complies with Spanish labor regulations and existing collective agreements.

Company representatives argue that the flexible scheduling demanded by modern low‑cost airline operations requires a mix of full‑time and part‑time roles, and that overtime is handled within legal bounds.

Ryanair, for its part, has distanced itself from the dispute by framing it as a matter for its ground handling subsidiary while reiterating that it expects its flight program to continue.

Mediation sessions have been held under Spain’s labor dispute mechanisms, but as of late December there has been no breakthrough that would halt the planned pattern of walkouts.

With the strike timetable firmly in place through the end of the year, unions say their goal is to force Azul Handling back to the table with a more substantial offer, while airport and tourism authorities warn that prolonged disruption could damage Spain’s image during a critical travel season.

Airports and routes most at risk of disruption

The impact of the Azul Handling strikes varies across Spain, largely depending on how heavily an airport relies on Ryanair and how concentrated its operations are in the strike windows.

Madrid Barajas and Barcelona El Prat are major hubs where Ryanair competes alongside full‑service and other low‑cost carriers, but at smaller or more leisure‑focused airports the airline often plays an outsized role.

Locations such as Malaga, Alicante, Palma de Mallorca, Tenerife South and Lanzarote are particularly exposed, both because of the volume of Ryanair flights and because they serve as gateways for package tourism, holiday homes and winter sun breaks from across Europe.

Reports from these airports over the autumn have described extended queues at Ryanair bag drop counters during strike periods, as well as slower‑than‑usual baggage delivery after arrival when reduced ground staffing struggled to process multiple flights in quick succession.

Even airports not directly staffed by Azul Handling can feel indirect effects. Ryanair aircraft criss‑cross the continent on complex daily patterns. A plane that begins its day with a delayed departure from Palma or Seville during a strike window might go on to operate sectors such as Barcelona to Milan or Madrid to London.

Passengers boarding later in the day, far from Spain, may therefore experience delays linked to earlier disruption in the Azul Handling network, without any local industrial action taking place.

Travel agents and online booking platforms are advising customers to pay close attention to the origin of their aircraft and to leave extra margin when planning self‑connections or time‑sensitive onward travel.

In particular, passengers using Sunday evening flights from Spanish leisure destinations to get back to work on Monday morning are being urged to factor in the possibility of extended delays if their departure falls within or immediately after a strike window.

How passengers can prepare and what rights apply

With the strike pattern now well established, travelers have a clearer basis for planning. One of the simplest steps is to check scheduled departure and arrival times against the announced walkout windows.

Flights that fall squarely outside the 05:00 to 09:00, 12:00 to 15:00 and 21:00 to 23:59 periods on affected days may still face some knock‑on effects, but they are less exposed than those that sit in the heart of the stoppages.

Passengers are being urged to arrive at the airport earlier than they might normally, especially on Sundays and other strike days. Allowing extra time for check-in, bag drop and security can reduce stress and help ensure that travelers reach the gate even if queues are longer than anticipated.

Those who can travel with hand luggage only may wish to do so, since checked bags depend directly on the services provided by striking staff.

From a legal standpoint, Ryanair flights to, from and within the European Union fall under EU Regulation 261/2004, which sets out rules on compensation and assistance in the event of cancellations or long delays.

The question of whether strikes by third‑party ground handlers count as “extraordinary circumstances” that relieve an airline of compensation obligations has been contested in various cases, and outcomes can depend on the specific facts and court interpretations.

Regardless of compensation, airlines are generally expected to provide care such as meals and hotel accommodation when passengers are stranded overnight due to disruptions linked to their operations.

Consumer advocates recommend that travelers document any disruption carefully, including keeping boarding passes, noting delay times and retaining receipts for expenses such as food or alternative transport.

Travel insurance policies can also play a role, though coverage varies widely. Some policies offer fixed payouts for delays beyond a certain threshold, while others focus on reimbursing additional costs.

Passengers are advised to check policy wording closely and to contact insurers promptly if their trip is affected by the strike.

Outlook for the rest of the year and potential next steps

As December progresses, the Azul Handling strike is intersecting with some of the busiest days of the European travel calendar.

Sundays in late December are already heavy with returning holidaymakers and winter sun travelers, while New Year’s Eve sits at the end of the current strike timetable.

That combination raises the risk of crowded terminals and stretched ground services even if the weather holds and air traffic control flows smoothly.

Spanish tourism bodies and regional authorities have voiced concern about the potential reputational impact if images of long queues and delayed baggage dominate coverage during the festive period.

However, unions argue that years of unresolved grievances and what they describe as aggressive disciplinary practices left them with little choice but to escalate.

With the partial walkouts tightly targeted and minimum services in place, both sides claim to be defending their core interests while trying to limit harm to passengers.

The timeline beyond 31 December remains uncertain. UGT’s current strike call formally runs until the end of the year, but the underlying labor dispute could extend into 2026 if no agreement is reached.

Labor experts say that potential scenarios include a negotiated settlement that ends the walkouts, a decision by unions to renew or expand industrial action, or legal interventions if either side seeks to challenge the scope of the strike in court.

For now, the most immediate concern for travelers is practical rather than political.

With each Sunday and holiday period bringing fresh waves of passengers into the strike windows, the advice from airports, travel agencies and consumer groups converges on a few simple themes: check your flight status frequently, arrive early, pack patience and be prepared for journeys that may take longer than the timetable suggests.

FAQ

Q1. Which days are affected by the Ryanair ground handling strike in Spain?
The current nationwide strike at Azul Handling covers every Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 15 August 2025 through 31 December 2025, with additional targeted dates at some airports during peak periods.

Q2. At what times of day do the strike windows operate?
The partial walkouts are scheduled in three daily blocks: from 05:00 to 09:00, from 12:00 to 15:00 and from 21:00 to 23:59 local time, capturing early morning, midday and late evening traffic peaks.

Q3. Are flights being cancelled or just delayed?
Most Ryanair flights are still operating, but passengers are experiencing longer queues and delays at check-in and baggage claim, especially when their flights coincide with strike windows. Cancellations so far appear limited compared with the number of flights affected by slower ground operations.

Q4. Which Spanish airports are most exposed to disruption?
Major Ryanair bases such as Madrid Barajas, Barcelona El Prat, Malaga, Alicante, Valencia, Seville, Palma de Mallorca, Tenerife South, Lanzarote, Ibiza, Girona and Santiago de Compostela are among the most affected, as Azul Handling provides key ground services there.

Q5. How can a strike in Spain delay flights in other countries?
Ryanair aircraft operate multi‑leg rotations across Europe. If an aircraft leaves late from an affected Spanish airport because of slow ground handling, that delay can carry over to later flights on its schedule, even at airports where there is no local strike.

Q6. What rights do passengers have if their flight is heavily delayed?
Ryanair services within, to and from the European Union are subject to EU Regulation 261/2004, which sets rules on care, rerouting and potential compensation for long delays or cancellations. Whether a third‑party ground handling strike triggers compensation depends on legal interpretations of “extraordinary circumstances,” but passengers should still be entitled to basic assistance.

Q7. What practical steps should travelers take on strike days?
Passengers are advised to arrive at the airport earlier than usual, travel with hand luggage only if possible, complete online check‑in in advance, monitor flight status closely and allow generous connection times, especially when arranging their own onward links.

Q8. Is the strike limited to Sundays or does it cover other days too?
While Sundays are a key focus because of heavy demand, the current strike plan also includes Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. All of these days see walkouts in the same three daily time windows, so disruption is not confined to weekends alone.

Q9. How long is the strike expected to last?
The UGT union’s current call runs from 15 August 2025 until 31 December 2025. Any extension into 2026 would require a new announcement or updated strike notice, which had not been formally issued at the time of writing.

Q10. Should travelers consider changing their bookings because of the strike?
Deciding to rebook depends on individual circumstances. Travelers with tight onward connections, important time‑sensitive commitments or departures squarely within strike windows may wish to look at alternative timings or routes, while others may opt to keep their plans and simply allow extra time at the airport and build flexibility into their schedules.