The trade union informs that the strike will take place on Wednesday and Thursday between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. Pilots will not perform their duties during strike, which will take place inside and in front of the Adria Airways management building. The strike committee expects between 106 and 114 pilots to take part in the action.

The union adds that it is prepared to negotiate, but that it will no consent to the lowering of pilot salaries and working terms, informed the head the trade union Marjan Majcen. According to his words the last collective agreement on Adria pilot salaries and working conditions expired at the end of February. And as a new agreement has not been signed yet, the union writes that with the 1st of March the employer has started "lowering pilot salaries and working terms", which is unacceptable.

Until a new agreement is not signed, the union demands that Adria Airways secures the same scope of rights and obligations for its pilots as in the last collective agreement. "The union is not accepting the argument of the employer that the situation in our society has chaned so much since the signing of the last agreement, that it is justified to make interventions in pilot salaries and rights," the trade union wrote.

Strikes are announced for the 22nd and 23rd of March, for the 27th and 28th of April, and for the 25th and 26th of May.

First schedule changes and flight cancellations known
Adria Airways informs that it does not expect any flight cancellations for the 22nd of March. Initially it predicted that the strike would not even affect flights on the 23rd of March, but it is now known that some flights will remain grounded on Thursday – the morning flight to Zurich and the return flight from Zurich to Ljubljana are both cancelled, as are the flights from Ljubljana to Tirana and the return flight from Tirana to Ljubljana, the flight from Ljubljana to Priština, and the evening flight from Paris to Ljubljana. For those scheduled to fly from Priština to Ljubljana, the company will organize transport to Skopje, from where passengers will be able to fly to the Slovenian capital.

On Wednesday there will be no flight cancellations but changes in the flight schedule can be expected. Adria Airways is calling on all passengers to closely follow all the new information on the Adria Airways website. The company also added that it would get in touch with all those supposed to fly on the affected flights, and who have left their contacts with the airline. All other passengers are asked to call the Adria Airways call centre or the place where they purchased their ticket. The airline will try offer free of charge flight destination changes, free changes to the flight dates, or reimburse that part of the ticket which hasn't been used.

A. Č., Sa. J.; translated by K. J.