CaptainMiles

Flight attendant union SNPVAC announced new strike dates for October 30, November 1, November 30 and December 2. The two blocks of dates include a work day in between, weird.

TP seems to have zeroed out all classes on all flights on 10/30. I did not check other dates, but presume it's the same. The flights are still on the schedule, officially not canceled, but you can't book anything. This does not look good. No announcement on any TP channel about the strike. Total silence. A portuguese news article says a TAP disse esta manhã não ter recebido “qualquer pré-aviso”, não pretendendo fazer qualquer outro comentário sobre a situação (TAP said this morning they had not receive any advance notice, and did not want to comment any further). Clearly they have received some notice because they zeroed out all the flights, so this silence is really unprofessional.

mmff

The information is out in the press, so they know (as everyone else does) that there is the risk of a strike. This does not imply that there was an official notice, without which the strike would be illegal.

I have a flight on October 31, so I will monitor this closely.

NeptunePT

Official confirmation:

http://www.flytap.com/Portugal/en/In...ns/information

mmff

According to the operator I have just talked to flights on October 31st should not be affected. I am quite sure LIS will be even more of a zoo than usual but scheduled flights should take place as expected.

Munich85

Here more Infos:

http://www.flytap.com/Deutschland/de...ns/information

vd0t

Any more news on this? I'm flying with TAP on Nov 30 and worried that they will cancel my flight. Would they rebook me on a different carrier?

mmff

You should call them to sort it out. They will probably propose that you fly one day earlier.

vd0t

Thanks. I did call them but they said that the strike on Nov 30 is not for certain. I guess I will have to check again closer to that date.

tff

That is not what has been made public: http://www.flytap.com/Portugal/en/In...ns/information. You are allowed to change your flight free of charge.

CaptainMiles

The strike is on, and so far it seems that most flights departing LIS are getting canceled. All early morning flights up to 9am were short haul, and all were canceled. Long haul operations start in the next hour, and so far 2 out of 4 were cancelled (MAO and BOG canceled, BSB and POA still appear to be on but we shall see if they actually operate).

CaptainMiles

I don't get TP's priorities. All LIS long haul before noon canceled. All but 4 LIS short haul before noon canceled. What operated?

TP1821 LIS-TER
TP426 LIS-ORY
TP1907 LIS-FAO
TP1685 LIS-FNC

Everything else canceled.

TP1821 LIS-TER I get. It was "serviços mínimos", required by law. But if they had 3 more crews to operate three flights, why pick these three?

LIS-PAR is a very saturated market, with many other flights today by other airlines that could potentially take on TP's pax: 4xAF, 2xTO, 2xVY, ZI, U2, FR. If there is a route where pax can be easily accommodated on other airlines, this is it. Why operate this and leave others stranded?

LIS-FAO is very unexpected. Any reasonable pax, knowing of the strike, would just have planned to drive or take a train. It's a 2.5 hours drive. So the pax load was probably light. Well, perhaps they need the aircraft and crew in FAO to operate some other important flight. Oh, no. They turned it around and operated as TP1908 FAO-LIS. Geez, of all the routes where your precious crew might be used, you choose to operate LIS-FAO-LIS? What lunatic is running the asylum here?

LIS-FNC perhaps, perhaps, makes sense. Still, there is a guaranteed "serviços mínimos" TP flight this afternoon and two other U2 flights. Did they really need to operate this additional LIS-FNC, considering that there are three other flights on this route today?

If they had some short hauls crews available, I would have expected them to operate some flights where alternatives are difficult (like LIS-ACC), or to *A hubs poorly served by *A partners from LIS. For example, LIS-ZRH and LIS-VIE were both canceled, and operating these would have opened a lot of options for connections on *A. Yet they choose to operate LIS-FAO-LIS. Blows the mind.

The choice of flights seems just bizarre.

mmff

AFAIK, they have to guarantee TP1821 and TP1685 by law.

Flights to ORY early in the morning are usually pretty packed, so I guess operating TP426 was a way to minimize the last-minute expense of booking your passengers in another carrier.

TP1907 is indeed a mystery.

CaptainMiles

TP1685 was not guaranteed. The afternoon TP1691 is the only LIS-FNC required by law.

I just learned of another chaotic situation. TP229 LIS-MIA was scheduled to operate on time departing 12:30. At the airport they were selling tickets for TP229, and afaik sold every single seat. Pax and bags were checked in. They boarded the pax to the boarding lounge. All indications was that the flight was going. Then, at 12:12, canceled. Did they only realize 18 minutes before departure that they had no crew? What a zoo.

Palal

If you have to reschedule anything, do it through their facebook page. They're much more responsive than by phone IMO.

CaptainMiles

There is again widespread word in the media that there will be new strike December 27-30. Nice. TAP says they have not received notice from the unions. Stay tuned.