easyJet’s Portugal Cabin Crew Strike Starts Friday, and the Government Has Protected 57 Round Trips

easyJet cabin crew based in Portugal will strike for five days from Friday, October 2, 2026, through Tuesday, October 6, a stretch that takes in the national Republic Day holiday on Monday, October 5. The walkout covers the airline’s three Portuguese bases at Lisbon Airport, Porto and Faro.

An easyJet official source estimated that about 500 scheduled flights from those bases would be affected, according to Lusa reporting carried by RTP. The cabin crew union, SNPVAC, put its own count at around 500 cancellations, not including any flights the authorities ordered to operate.

That figure is an estimate of flights at risk, not a list of confirmed cancellations. The real number depends on how many crew join the strike and how easyJet reshapes its schedule, as the Portuguese travel site Aproxima Viagem points out.

The flights the government ordered to operate

The two sides could not agree on minimum services. SNPVAC’s strike notice carried no proposal, and when easyJet tabled one at a meeting convened by the labor ministry, the union disagreed with it, according to the joint government order, Despacho n.º 51/2026.

Portuguese labor law treats an airline as serving essential social needs linked to the right to travel, so the Secretaries of State for Infrastructure and for Labor set the minimum services themselves. The order gives particular weight to keeping the Madeira archipelago connected to the mainland.

Route	Minimum service, October 2 to 6
Lisbon to Funchal	2 round trips a day (10 in total)
Porto to Funchal	1 round trip a day (5)
Porto to Porto Santo	1 round trip on October 4 and on October 6 (2)
Lisbon to Geneva, Basel or Zurich; Faro or Porto to Geneva	3 round trips a day across the group (15)
Lisbon, Porto or Faro to Nantes, Bordeaux, Lyon, Nice or Paris Orly (listed pairs only)	3 round trips a day across the group (15)
Lisbon to London	1 round trip a day (5)
Lisbon or Porto to Luxembourg	1 round trip a day across both (5)

That adds up to 57 round trips, or 114 individual flights, over the five days. The Swiss and French lines are pools rather than per-route promises: three round trips a day in total from the listed routes, so any single route may not fly on a given day.

A protected route is also not a protected booking. The order fixes a number of rotations, not every scheduled departure, so someone booked from Lisbon to Madeira’s Funchal airport still needs to check their own flight.

SNPVAC must name the crew who will work these flights at least 24 hours before each strike day. If it does not, easyJet names them.

Madeira’s regional government says the cover is not enough. Regional tourism secretary Eduardo Jesus said on September 30 that the minimum services “fall short” of the island’s needs, since Madeira has no overland alternative, and pointed to how Spain protects air links to its own archipelagos, DNOTICIAS reported.

Why the crew are striking

The 188 SNPVAC members at easyJet who attended an emergency general meeting on September 17 voted unanimously for two strikes, this one and a second from December 19 to 23. The union cites unstable rosters, compensation under the company agreement that it says treats cabin crew worse than pilots, and pressure to work overtime for commercial reasons.

It also says Portuguese crew are paid less than crew at other airlines in Portugal and less than easyJet crew elsewhere in its network, according to the union statement reported by Público. The union further accuses easyJet of repeatedly replacing striking crew with managers and with colleagues from other countries in its network, a practice it says empties the right to strike of meaning.

easyJet told Público it was “extremely disappointed” by the decision and called the union’s demands unworkable, noting that its cabin crew are paid significantly more than the Portuguese national average. It said a conciliation process had recently begun through DGERT, the labor ministry’s directorate for employment and labor relations.

The dispute comes as easyJet heads into private ownership under the US investment firm Apollo’s takeover deal. At the time of writing on October 1, the latest Portuguese coverage still had the strike going ahead, and no settlement had been reported.

What passengers are owed

Flights departing Portugal fall under the EU’s air passenger rights regulation, EC 261/2004. In March 2021 the EU Court of Justice ruled, in a case against SAS, that a strike called by an airline staff union, in that case to win pay increases, is not an “extraordinary circumstance” that excuses the airline from paying compensation.

Passengers told of a cancellation less than 14 days before departure are generally due compensation, according to the EU’s Your Europe guidance. It is €250 for flights of 932 miles (1,500 km) or less, and €400 for longer flights within the EU and for other flights of up to 2,175 miles (3,500 km), unless the airline offers a replacement flight close to the original times.

A canceled passenger can choose between a refund and rebooking. While waiting for a replacement flight, the airline owes them meals and refreshments, and a hotel if they are rebooked onto the next day.

Until easyJet cancels a booking, the flight is still scheduled. A passenger who stays home from a flight that then operates can lose the rights a cancellation would have given them.

December is next

The second strike, from December 19 to 23, falls in the week before Christmas, and the same easyJet source said it expects the number of affected flights to be considerably higher than in October. The government order protects more for those dates, including two daily Porto to Funchal round trips and two round trips in total to Praia or São Vicente in Cape Verde.

The order justifies the extra cover by pointing to emigrant communities returning home and families traveling to reunite over the holiday. Cape Verde is protected only in December, not during this week’s strike.