Summer strike season returns as Europe decides it wants a holiday too

Summer is here, the sun is (allegedly) out in Britain, and half the country is frantically checking Skyscanner for the cheapest flight to anywhere that will serve them calamari at 10pm. But wait — before you dust off your passport and pack three pairs of sunglasses you’ll lose by day two, Europe has a message: We’d quite like a holiday too.

Yes, while British holidaymakers are rolling up to the airport with flip-flops and factor 50, Europe’s air traffic controllers, baggage handlers, cabin crews and train conductors are politely downing tools and putting up their collective “Gone to the beach” sign.

Take Italy, for example — this week air traffic controllers are staging a neat little strike that could ground hundreds of flights. What better way to say Ciao than by cancelling half the planes heading for Naples? Meanwhile, over in Spain, airport staff are eyeing their own version of a poolside siesta by planning walkouts that could leave you stranded at the sangria bar for an extra three days.

French air traffic controllers, of course, remain the undisputed champions of the “Summer Strike Season” — an annual tradition as sacred as Wimbledon rain delays and overcooked BBQ sausages. If your Ryanair flight hasn’t done a holding pattern over Paris at least once, have you really been on holiday?

You might be thinking: How dare they? Don’t they know we have sun loungers to race Germans for? But spare a thought for Europe’s transport workers. Maybe they’d quite like to sip an overpriced Aperol in the departure lounge too. Maybe they too dream of escaping their boss by hiding in an all-inclusive buffet queue in Tenerife.

In truth, Europe’s strikers know that the only way to guarantee a bit of time off is to make sure nobody else goes anywhere either. After all, if they have to sweat it out in hot control towers and crowded train stations while you post smug beach selfies, who really wins?

So, this summer, as you sit on your delayed plane, staring at the runway while the pilot mutters something vague about “industrial action”, remember: the strikers aren’t against your holiday. They just want one of their own.

Think of it as solidarity. Maybe next year, we’ll all strike together. No flights, no queues, no stress. Everyone stays home with a paddling pool and a cheap bottle of prosecco from Aldi. No lost luggage, no sweaty airport hotels. Paradise!

So here’s to Europe’s striking transport workers — the unsung heroes making sure everyone gets a break this summer, whether they planned one or not.

Safe travels. Or not.