Travel warning issued as major strikes set to hit 12 airports across Spain
The walkouts involve Azul Handling, part of the Ryanair group who provide baggage handlers to several Spanish airports, and have been called by the General Union of Workers (UGT).
They are in response to claims of 'constant breaches' of labour rights and 'continuous precariousness'.
Barcelona, Madrid, Seville, Alicante, Ibiza, Malaga, Palma de Mallorca, Tenerife South, Girona, Lanzarote and Santiago de Compestela airports are set to be affected.
The initial action is due to take place on August 15, 16 and 17 across three time slots, 5am to 9am, 12pm to 3pm and 9pm and 11.59pm.
For the remainder of the year, the strikes will continue every Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Millions of Brits jet off to Spain every year and many will be hoping to spend their summer holidays at the sunny destination.
At Barajas Airport in Madrid, two unions working with Ryanair's ground handling staff have pushed for 22 days of action.
They hope to protest against 'the abuse of overtime' and sanctions put on employees.
Disagreements of bonus and a lack of stable jobs are also highlighted as issues.
More than 3,000 workers will be striking, and the action falls on the bank holiday weekend at the end of August, just days before term starts for many British school children.
'UGT regrets having to go to these extremes and all the damages that may occur, for which the direct responsibility will be solely and exclusively the company and its reckless action with the workforce,' the unions said, according to the Mirror.
A spokesperson for Ryanair told Daily Mail: 'Ryanair does not expect any disruption to our operation as a result of these third-party handling strikes in Spain.'
It comes after Union chiefs in the Balearic Islands called six days of industrial action starting from July 10 after talks with industry leaders failed.
Further strikes were scheduled for the 18th and 19th of July, the 25th, 26th and the 31st.
In June, residents marched across Spanish Islands to tell Brits to 'go home' as part of widespread protests against so-called 'over tourism'.
Holidaymakers were visibly stunned by the dramatic demonstrations in Palma de Mallorca and Ibiza.
Thousands of fed-up locals were seen banging their drums and chanting slogans while marching by tourists enjoying their evening meals.
The demonstration began at Plaza de España, in the heart of the tourist city. Activists claimed more than 30,000 people took to the streets to voice their frustrations about the impact of tourism on the island.
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InteleTravel operates as a legitimate, ABTA-regulated travel agent business and there is no suggestion that they have done anything illegal. Anyone who wants to sign up with them must go through PlanNet Marketing and The Sun found no way to join without doing this. Whilst InteleTravel agents can make legitimate commissions from selling travel, statistically it appears that many do not make a profit once the required and compulsory outgoings via PlanNet are deducted. A 2025 survey suggests that across the whole UK sector 93 per cent of direct selling agents - who sell products to others online for an income - are women. But, far from being a platform for female empowerment, the onslaught of social media messaging from InteleTravel agents appears to target a specific group - mums of school-age kids, typically between 33-44. 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Rights of Reply When presented with figures that showed that most agents ended up making a loss, an InteleTravel UK spokesman said: 'We believe this information originates from PlanNet Marketing where this information is in the public domain, so we suggest redirecting your questions directly to PlanNet. 'PlanNet handles the recruitment for InteleTravel, so to join InteleTravel, you go through PlanNet. 'InteleTravel isn't going to comment on the commissions earned by agents. 'InteleTravel is a host travel agency and should you wish to talk to us about selling travel through our travel advisors, we would be happy to showcase some of our successful agents to you.' When asked for average earning figures for their agents, however, they refused to comment further. We contacted PlanNet but received no response. Agents for Vicky Pattison, Jess Wright and Tanya Bardsley declined to comment. 'There is no way you could do that while being a mum or around another job. 'If you break even with the financial investment and don't lose money, you'll still end up spending a lot of hours either in the meetings, doing training or trying to organise bookings. 'For most people, it's not sustainable, and then you feel like a failure. 'Especially with the messages telling you to 'get out of your own head' and 'change your story'. It's done specifically to make it feel like you're the problem. 'People are scared to leave because they don't want to come across as failures or they are embarrassed to admit they were sucked in.' And it's not just would-be travel agents who have found themselves out of pocket. Holiday hell 19 19 Marisa Noyce, from Hampshire, alleges a dream holiday for her recent 40th birthday turned into a nightmare after she booked through an InteleTravel agent. 'My hairdresser told me about this lady who gets good deals on holidays, so I got in contact and she said she could get me the same deal I'd found online for almost £700 less,' she says. 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More claims 19 19 Back in the UK, she relayed her experience on Facebook and warned other locals not to hand over money to the agent. She was contacted by people who claimed to have had similar experiences, with one family having their Christmas trip to Lapland cancelled. 'I now warn people about booking with these agents. I'm sure most are not dishonest, but I feel more confident booking with an established agency,' says Marisa. 'This agent wasn't even privy to great deals. Our hotel in Greece was actually just booked through 'You are just literally handing over your hard-earned cash to a complete stranger for a deal you can get online for yourself. Why risk it?' As for Gemma, who left InteleTravel at the beginning of the year, she is still getting approached every day by agents hoping to re-recruit her. 'It's always by other women. They reply to your Instagram stories about something else, befriend you and then cleverly lure you in with their messaging, which they appear to be trained for, because everyone says the same. It's shady,' she says. 'The lady who recruited me was very persistent. She messaged me for months before eventually giving up. 'I just wanted to sell travel, not a promise of making all this money to my friends and followers on social media. 'And, of course, I never did make anything close to that.' 19 19
