Travel chaos looms as easyJet pilots and Italian baggage handlers to strike on same day cancelling flights from major European airports

It comes as easyJet pilots and Italian baggage handlers have planned a mass walkout for the second time this year. A 24-hour strike is slated to take place on Monday March 24 starting at midnight and creating a 'dual threat' for tourists.

The strikes, which have been backed by several powerful European unions including ANPAC (National Association of Professional Civil Aviation), FILT (Italian Federation of Transport Workers) and CGIL (Italian General Confederation of Labour), will see both low-cost carrier pilots and Italy's largest airport handler associations Assohandlers protest together.

Assohandlers, which works with companies including eayJet, Ryanair, and Wizz Air, represents baggage handlers and ground staff at major airports including Milan Malpensa, Rome Fiumicino, Naples, Catania and Venice. In a statement sent to the Mirror, Anton Radchenko, CEO at AirAdvisor warns the protest is likely to lead to flights being cancelled and 'large-scale disruption'.

He said: "easyJet is in a particularly troublesome position, with not only its pilots striking, but also staff at one of its key handling partners in Italy set to walk out. When pilots strike, carriers may draft in standby or management pilots that belong to unions that aren't striking, however this is a complicated process that alone doesn’t prevent certain services from being cancelled.

“There is legislation in place to compensate air passengers affected by airline strikes - and in the case of the easyJet industrial action, the airline will owe you compensation if your flight is delayed by more than three hours or cancelled. easyJet is obliged to pay up for flights cancelled as a result of their own staff striking as the courts consider the inconvenience to be within the airlines' control - or in other words, avoidable”. Any Brits travelling to or from Italy on March 24 should download their airline's app and sign up for email and SMS alerts.