The Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda in Spain established minimum service levels during an indefinite strike by Air Nostrum SA pilots, as called by SEPLA, allocating up to 90 percent coverage for island-bound flights and 65 percent coverage for peninsula flights.
Flights to and from non-peninsula regions carrying public service obligations are required to relocate 90% of passengers as scheduled. Weather conditions considered non-changeable are applied to the mobility needs of these non-peninsula areas.
Similarly, the same protections apply to routes under public service obligations. This measure reflects the special need to guarantee connectivity in the affected regions, as stated in the ministry’s announcement.
In domestic flights, 65% of passengers with a travel time exceeding five hours by public transport and who plan to fly internationally will be covered, ensuring a 65% relocation of passengers on shielded flights.
For domestic flights with travel times under five hours by public transport, the minimum service guarantees the displacement of 40% of passengers to ensure travel time reliability.
Emergency workers, such as ambulance crews, firefighters, organ transplant teams, the National Transport System, and civil protection and rescue services, receive 100% protection at all times.
The criterion for setting minimum services hinges on a percentage of flights to be protected relative to the total scheduled operations at each affected airport, with 100% protection reserved for emergency flights when assessed as such.
The proportion of protected flights is calculated from the occupancy rate of the airline’s flights and the number of passengers to be carried, recalculated each time a strike is called.
Additionally, intermodal substitution is considered: when a journey covers long distances, replacing air travel with public land transport is not always efficient. For distances beyond 500 kilometers, equating to more than five hours of travel, the human and logistical implications are weighed, noting that alternative modes already operate with occupancy levels from regular users.
“Continuous improvement” of minimum services
The decision includes a dedicated section detailing how minimum service provisions evolve with differing legal interpretations across jurisdictions and with amendments intended to clarify the decision. The ministry emphasizes transparency and ongoing improvement as guiding principles.
For each airport affected by the strike, a more granular protection framework is outlined compared with the previous approach, which tended to average protections across the group of affected airports.
Regarding domestic flights to or from non-peninsula regions, 100% protection is pre-applied for a 90% passenger relocation scenario.
In universal postal and perishable goods transport, including the shipment of medicines, live animals, and coffins, no protection is applied to strikes occurring within short time frames.
Flights not covered by the protection are identified as departures from or arrivals at airports outside Spanish territory. While the resolution restricts certain practices, such as crewed aircraft charters or joint operations, it avoids curtailing the organizers’ right to strike.
As an annex to the decision, a list of planned flights from the airline is included to flag potentially affected services.
Finally, the rationale for why state authorities may delegate the execution and implementation of minimum services to the airline operators is outlined, always guided by objective criteria aimed at continuous improvement. This approach is consistent with relevant case law and practical considerations.