easyJet’s Flight Crews in Italy Will Strike for 24 Hours on October 16, Despite a Vote Backing Their New Contract

easyJet’s flight crews in Italy will strike for 24 hours on Friday, October 16, 2026, from midnight to 11:59 p.m. local time. The walkout was called by the USB Lavoro Privato union, which also called a separate 24-hour strike that day by staff at Pisa International Airport and Florence airport.

USB said on October 6 that the strike is going ahead, as the result of a staff vote approving a new company contract signed by five other unions was published. USB disputes that vote.

What the strike notices cover

Italy’s transport ministry keeps a public register of strike notices. On October 7, it listed three aviation strikes for October 16.

Staff covered	Hours (local)	Called by	Notice dated
easyJet Airlines Limited flight crew, nationwide	00:00 to 23:59	USB Lavoro Privato	September 14
Toscana Aeroporti, GH Toscana and Consulta staff at Pisa and Florence airports	24 hours	USB Lavoro Privato	September 28
Poste Air Cargo pilots, nationwide	00:00 to 24:00	FILT-CGIL, FIT-CISL, UILT-UIL, ANPAC, ANP	September 30

The easyJet notice uses the Italian term for flying staff, which covers pilots as well as cabin crew. It names easyJet Airlines Limited and is filed under Italian strike rules, so it applies to the company’s crews employed in Italy rather than to easyJet crews based in other countries.

Toscana Aeroporti runs both Pisa and Florence airports. Poste Air Cargo is the freight airline of Italy’s postal group, so its pilots’ strike affects mail and cargo rather than passengers.

Some strike calendars also list an ENAV air traffic control strike for October 16, but the ministry register shows none that day. FILT-CGIL and UGL-TA’s four-hour national ENAV strike is listed for November 21, and a security staff strike at Venice airport is listed for November 22.

Why easyJet’s crews are striking

The dispute is over easyJet’s company-level contract for its Italian crews. During an earlier 24-hour easyJet crew strike on July 5, Uiltrasporti said that contract had expired in September 2025.

On September 15, FILT-CGIL, FIT-CISL, Uiltrasporti, UGL Trasporto Aereo and ANPAC signed a renewal. A vote of all easyJet flying staff on the pilot and cabin crew sections opened on October 2.

USB was left out of the talks, although it says it is the best-represented union among the crews at every base. In its October 6 statement, it called the vote “opaque” and said the published figures left it “very doubtful” about the outcome.

USB also objects to the deal itself, saying it erodes the crews’ 13th-month salary, a standard extra month of pay in Italy that crews had pursued in court cases easyJet lost on appeal. It also calls the real pay rises “risible.”

Italy is easyJet’s second-largest market after the UK, with more than 21 million passengers in 2025, its Italy country manager, Lorenzo Lagorio, told Radiocor in January. Besides Milan Malpensa, where he said easyJet wants to grow further, the airline has opened bases at Milan Linate and Rome Fiumicino.

Which flights Italian rules protect

Italy’s aviation strike rules are set by the national strike guarantee commission and published by the civil aviation authority ENAC. They protect two daily windows, 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.

When an airline’s crews strike, every flight scheduled to depart in those windows must operate. International flights arriving within half an hour of the end of each window are also protected.

Outside the windows, the airline must still fly one daily connection to and from the islands, island charters authorized before the strike was called, and one intercontinental departure per continent, each only where it has one scheduled. So an easyJet departure from Italy scheduled for 8 a.m. or 7 p.m. is protected, but one at noon is not.

At Pisa and Florence, airport services must run normally in the same two windows. Outside them, aircraft and passenger handling only has to keep 20% of normal service running, and ENAC’s airport office must authorize 20% of the flights scheduled in those hours.

The same windows framed Italy’s September 30 controller strike, which was scheduled entirely outside them.

What passengers can claim

Who is striking matters for compensation. In 2021 the EU’s top court ruled that a strike called by a union of an airline’s own staff to press pay and working demands is not an “extraordinary circumstance,” so it does not excuse the airline from compensating passengers.

Under EU rules, which cover every flight departing an EU airport, a cancellation carries €250 to €600 in compensation depending on distance, plus a refund or rebooking. The airline avoids paying only if it warns passengers at least two weeks before departure or, with shorter notice, offers a replacement flight close to the original times.

With the strike nine days away, any cancellation announced now falls inside that two-week limit. So passengers on a canceled easyJet flight out of Italy that day should normally be owed compensation, unless they are offered a closely timed replacement flight.

The airport walkout is different. EU guidance says a strike by staff outside the airline can count as an extraordinary circumstance, so a flight canceled because of the Pisa and Florence strike would still carry a refund or rebooking and care, but probably no cash payment.

AeroCorner found no easyJet statement about the strike or any cancellations as of October 7. Passengers booked on October 16 should check their flight before leaving for the airport.

Disruption continues the next day in France, where pilots and cabin crew have called a five-day strike from October 17.