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I had a flight to Lyon cancelled and the airline refused compensation because the reason for the cancellation would be a strike at a handling company Aviapartner at Lyon airport.

Now I do find other airlines cancelling flights on July 16, but I do not find any information from trade unions, local newspapers or the airport itself mentioning the strike. Whereas I do easily find information about earlier strikes of the company.

The cancellation took place during a very messy summer with lack of staff across airlines with many flights cancelled for operational reasons. Also, many other flights with the same handling agent could take place as scheduled on July 16.

Can anyone provide me with some more information about a potential strike of Aviapartner LYS ? Are there any other ways to check this information other than file a lawsuit against the airline and force them to come with proof?

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This website explicitly mentions strikes expected on the 15th and 16th. LyonMag quoted trade unionists saying the strikes at AviaPartner were going to "intensify". There is ample but patchy coverage of strikes by airport staff that were happening around the same time in the local press but very little about AviaPartner specifically.

At the same time, I wouldn't expect the local press to faithfuly report every day of industrial action in an ongoing conflict (the main local newspapers seemed to have barely covered AviaPartner, with only one article mentioning it in Le Progrès at the beginning of June). To me, reports of strikes before and after the 16th actually make the airline's account more credible. According to the reports I came across, only a part of the workforce was striking on any given day and not all flights were impacted so the fact that some flights did leave on the 16th does not seem very significant. The other cancellation you mention also lend the airline's account additional credibility.

Suing over this seems likely to be a waste of time and money.

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  • Thanks for your comments! The first link you post to the press release of the union is from last year. I would indeed have expected something similar for strikes on my travel date. The link to the Air Algerie flights indeed mentions strikes and flight cancellations, but the Air Algerie flights mentioned on the website have not been cancelled. So I am not sure the information on that website is correct. We were 6 passengers, so compensation would be 1.500 EUR, that's quite some money.
    – John
    Oct 11, 2022 at 20:08
  • @John I wil correct the answer, thanks. I don't think this website provides very strong evidence either but I also believe that's not the way you should look at it. If you actively look for reasons to believe there may not have been a strike, it only makes it too easy to engage in wishful thinking when in fact all we found is additional evidence that the airline's account is credible (including this website and the source you mentioned yourself).
    – Relaxed
    Oct 11, 2022 at 21:16
  • I would rather recommend asking yourself if you have any positive reason to believe the airline may be acting in bad faith? Did you get another explanation on the day itself? Earlier bad experience of compensation denied under false pretense?
    – Relaxed
    Oct 11, 2022 at 21:28
  • Your last link is about LYS airport staff. The strike 2 weeks earlier that is mentioned in the article was on July 13, so that was clearly not the reason for cancellation of my flight. Aviapartner indeed had several strikes earlier in July and June (all well documented in local newspapers and union's website), but apart from the Air Algerie information that tells flights would be cancelled because of a strike, that finally were not cancelled at all, I don't find much information for July 16.
    – John
    Oct 11, 2022 at 22:10
  • And yes, I have reasons to believe the airline is acting in bad faith. I had several requests denied for extraordinary reasons that turned out not to be extraordinary at all. They basically denied everything at first, only to give in after I threaten them with legal action. And they have cancelled many flights in July since they have staff issues. I suspect them to abuse the turbulence at their handling partner to cancel flights they wanted to cancel anyway. Since that's difficult to prove, I was hoping to find someone with more insight into LYS operations.
    – John
    Oct 11, 2022 at 22:16

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