The easyJet Portugal Strike Leaves Faro Holiday Flights Exposed

SNPVAC says easyJet cancelled 443 flights from Lisbon, Porto and Faro in a Portugal cabin crew strike that ran from 2 to 6 October. A second five-day walkout is already set for 19 to 23 December.

The government’s floor of protected flights was built around Madeira and a handful of Swiss, French and Luxembourg links, plus one daily Lisbon-London rotation. Faro’s UK holiday routes barely appear on that list.

443 Cancellations Close a Five-Day Walkout

The National Union of Civil Aviation Flight Personnel, SNPVAC, voted on 17 September for two stoppages after 188 easyJet cabin crew at an emergency meeting backed the motion unanimously. The first window covered 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 October, including the Republic Day holiday on Monday 5 October, and it hit the airline’s three Portuguese bases at Lisbon, Porto and Faro.

Before the walkout, the union put about 500 scheduled flights from those bases at risk, a figure that did not yet include minimum services. During the five days it said 443 of those Portugal-based flights were cancelled. easyJet said it still expected to operate about 55 percent of its scheduled Portugal services, using the government floor plus aircraft and cabin crew based elsewhere in Europe.

THE OCTOBER WALKOUT IN FIGURES

• The union count: SNPVAC said 443 flights from Lisbon, Porto and Faro were cancelled across the five days.
• The airline share: easyJet said it expected to operate about 55 percent of scheduled Portugal services.
• The legal floor: the airline said minimum services covered about 22 percent of its Portugal-based flights.
• The vote: 188 SNPVAC members backed both strike windows unanimously on 17 September.

Those percentages describe different slices of the same week. The 22 percent is the government floor on Portugal-based flying. The 55 percent folds in inbound aircraft whose cabin crew are not on the Portuguese roster, which is why a passenger can still see some Lisbon, Porto or Faro flights operating while hundreds of others disappear from the board.

Anyone whose October booking was cancelled can rebook a cancelled easyJet flight in Manage Bookings, or take a refund. The December dates have not been withdrawn.

Minimum Services Run Through Madeira and One London Link

SNPVAC’s strike notice carried no minimum-service proposal. easyJet tabled one at a labour-ministry meeting and the union rejected it, so the Secretaries of State for Infrastructure and for Labour, Hugo Espírito Santo and Adriano Rafael Moreira, set the floor themselves in Despacho n.º 51/2026, signed on 25 September.

The order treats an airline as serving the constitutional right to travel, and it gives particular weight to keeping the Madeira archipelago tied to the mainland. Over 2 to 6 October that produced 57 round trips the government ordered, or 114 individual flights, across five days. The Swiss and French lines are pools: three round trips a day in total from a list of city pairs, so a named route may not fly on a given day.

FLIGHTS THE GOVERNMENT ORDERED TO FLY

Faro shows up only inside those Swiss and French pools, as Faro-Geneva, Faro-Nantes and Faro-Lyon. It is not named as a UK city pair. The only protected London flight is Lisbon-London, one round trip a day in both windows.

Madeira’s regional tourism secretary, Eduardo Jesus, said even that island cover falls short, because there is no road alternative. The order still puts Funchal and Porto Santo at the top of the list. The Algarve’s UK traffic does not get the same treatment.

Which UK-Portugal Flights Sit Outside the Shield?

easyJet flies to Portugal from Belfast, Birmingham, Bristol, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Liverpool, Gatwick, Luton, Southend, Manchester and Newcastle. Most of those services, especially the Faro legs that feed winter sun in the Algarve, sit outside the named floor. A protected rotation is also not a protected booking: the order fixes a number of round trips, not every scheduled departure, so a Lisbon-Funchal ticket still has to be checked seat by seat.

UK AIRPORTS ON EASYJET’S PORTUGAL NETWORK

• London area: Gatwick, Luton and Southend, with only Lisbon-London written into the strike order as one daily round trip.
• The north and Midlands: Manchester, Birmingham, Liverpool and Newcastle, none of which appear as named pairs in Despacho n.º 51/2026.
• Scotland and Northern Ireland: Edinburgh, Glasgow and Belfast, likewise absent from the protected list.
• The south-west: Bristol, a regular Faro and Lisbon departure point with no guaranteed rotation under the order.

On the last morning of the October walkout, even Lisbon-Geneva, a route inside the Swiss pool, was still being queried as delayed or cancelled. That is how thin the floor is in practice. A passenger who stays home from a flight that then operates can lose the rights a cancellation would have created, so the booking record, not the airport name, is the only status that counts.

SNPVAC’s Case Rests on Rosters and Unequal Terms

The union’s complaint is not that Portuguese cabin crew are paid at the national minimum. It says successive roster changes, alleged breaches of the company agreement, weaker compensation than pilots under that agreement, planning failures, and pressure to work overtime because of staff shortages have worn the bases down, with Porto named as short of people.

SNPVAC also says Portuguese crew are paid less than cabin crew at other airlines in Portugal and less than easyJet crew in other countries on the same network, where pay tracks the cost of living. easyJet called the demands unworkable and said its crew are already paid well above Portugal’s national average. Conciliation through DGERT, the labour authority, had started before the first walkout and did not stop it.

We know that aviation is unpredictable. But successive schedule changes are not aviation; they are a lack of respect for the workers and their family life. It is to maximise profits at the expense of the physical and mental wear and tear of the crew.

SNPVAC, statement, 2 October 2026

easyJet said it was “extremely disappointed” by strike plans that came despite those talks, and that it would do everything possible to minimise disruption, including cancelling some flights in advance so passengers could rearrange. The two descriptions of pay can both be true at once: above a national average, and still below other easyJet bases. The fight that actually grounded aircraft was the roster, not that comparison.

Other European Crews Kept Part of the Network Flying

The union accuses easyJet of emptying the strike of meaning by putting managers and colleagues from other countries onto flights that, in SNPVAC’s view, should have been cancelled. It has said crews arriving in Porto from France could operate services meant to replace striking cabin crew, and it has talked about taking that to court. easyJet said its contingency, including those other-base aircraft, follows the applicable rules.

WHAT WE KNOW

• The coverage model: easyJet said other European bases plus the 22 percent minimum-service share were how it planned to run about 55 percent of the Portugal schedule.
• The union objection: SNPVAC calls the use of non-Portuguese crew on struck flying unlawful and has indicated it may go to court.
• The passenger effect: a Faro or Lisbon flight can still operate if it is crewed from outside Portugal, which is why the airport does not close and why other airlines are not in this dispute.

WHAT IS UNCONFIRMED

• A filed case: a court challenge over replacement crews has been threatened, not shown as lodged.
• December cover: how many extra-base aircraft easyJet will position for 19 to 23 December has not been published.
• A settlement: DGERT talks have not produced a public agreement that withdraws the second window.

Lisbon, Porto and Faro stayed open. The action is a cabin-crew strike at one airline, not an airport shutdown and not an air-traffic-control stoppage. TAP, Ryanair and the rest of the field were not part of the ballot.

December 19 to 23 Repeats the Same Map

The same crews have a second five-day strike on 19, 20, 21, 22 and 23 December. SNPVAC has not issued a flight-count for that window. A company source said the number of affected flights is expected to be considerably higher, because Christmas schedules are heavier. The stoppage ends on 23 December, two days before Christmas.

The government already accepted that the second window needs more cover. The order points to emigrant communities coming home and to family travel, and it cites crowded airports and a shortage of spare slots to rebuild a broken bank of flights. Porto-Funchal is doubled to two round trips a day. Cape Verde, Praia and São Vicente, is added. Lisbon-London stays at one round trip a day. Faro-UK still is not named.

HOW THE TWO STRIKE WINDOWS WERE SET

1. 17 September 2026: 188 SNPVAC members at easyJet vote unanimously for walkouts on 2 to 6 October and 19 to 23 December.
2. 25 September 2026: Secretaries of State Espírito Santo and Moreira sign Despacho n.º 51/2026, setting minimum services for both periods after the two sides fail to agree.
3. 2 to 6 October 2026: the first five-day strike runs through Republic Day; SNPVAC later puts cancellations at 443 Portugal-based flights.
4. 19 to 23 December 2026: the second five-day strike remains scheduled, with extra Madeira and Cape Verde cover and the same single daily Lisbon-London rotation.

If talks fail again, the December geometry is the October geometry on a fuller timetable. Anyone already holding a Lisbon, Porto or Faro ticket in that window is in the same position Faro-UK passengers were in October, unless easyJet staffs the flight from another country or the union and the airline settle.

What Passengers Can Claim After a Strike Cancellation

Flights leaving Portugal fall under EU rules on cancelled flights. If the airline cancels, the passenger chooses reimbursement, re-routing at the earliest chance, or re-routing on a later date, and is owed assistance at the airport, including meals and a hotel when the next flight is the following day.

Cash compensation is a separate track. It is generally due when the passenger was told less than 14 days before departure, unless the airline proves extraordinary circumstances. In a 2021 EU court ruling on airline strikes, the Court of Justice held that a walkout called by an airline’s own staff union over pay and working conditions is not an extraordinary circumstance, even when the strike follows national notice rules.

COMPENSATION BANDS UNDER EC 261

Those sums can be cut by half if the airline offers a replacement that arrives close to the original time. They are not due if the passenger was told more than 14 days ahead. Flights that leave the UK follow the UK passenger-rights regime, which uses the same distance bands. Until easyJet cancels the booking, the flight is still on; checking the app is the only way to know which side of that line a December ticket is on.

The October walkout is over. The December dates are not. The order that will apply on 19 to 23 December is already on the table, and it still reads as a Madeira-and-London document, not as a Faro-UK one.

Disclaimer: This article is news reporting and analysis of the easyJet Portugal cabin crew strikes and is for information only. It is not legal advice on compensation, refunds or ticket claims, and it does not replace Regulation EC 261/2004, UK passenger-rights rules or the terms of an individual booking. Readers should check their own reservation with the airline and, before filing a claim, consult a qualified aviation-rights adviser or solicitor. Figures, strike dates and flight statuses reflect the government order and the statements quoted here, and they can change.