Business and leisure travellers moving into, out of or within Italy face a complicated end to the month. According to strike notices published on 22 February, the entire Italian transport chain will be hit by a coordinated wave of walk-outs that begins with a 24-hour strike in the aviation sector on Thursday 26 February and continues with national rail stoppages from the evening of Friday 27 February through Saturday 28 February.
The aerial strike has been called by the major confederations—Filt-Cgil, Fit-Cisl, Uil-Trasporti, Ugl Trasporto Aereo, Anpac and Anp—and will involve flight-crew and ground-handling personnel at ITA Airways, easyJet, Vueling and the main airport service companies. ITA Airways has already pre-emptively cancelled roughly 55 % of its schedule on 26 February and warned that knock-on cancellations may affect flights late on 25 February and early on 27 February. Milan-Malpensa, Milan-Linate, Rome-Fiumicino, Venice-Marco Polo and Verona airports are considered the most exposed hubs. Travellers whose flights are cancelled can either change dates without penalty or request full refunds until 8 March.
Whether you’re rebooking flights or shifting itineraries to dodge the strikes, make sure your travel documentation is equally agile. VisaHQ can streamline the process of securing or extending Italian visas, provide up-to-date entry requirements and even organise courier collection of passports—saving valuable time when schedules are already disrupted. For details on how the service works, visit https://www.visahq.com/italy/
![Nation-wide Air-, Rail- and Local-Transport Strikes Set to Disrupt Travel Across Italy 26-28 February]()
Less than 24 hours later the protest shifts to the tracks. Locomotive drivers and onboard staff belonging to the Ferrovie dello Stato (Trenitalia, Trenitalia Tper, Mercitalia), Italo and Trenord unions will stop work from 21:00 on 27 February until 20:59 on 28 February. Separate 8-hour actions by Unione Sindacale di Base will hit freight operations, while regional operators such as Arriva Italia (Turin) and Ferrovie Sud-Est (Bari) will stage parallel local strikes. As required by Italian law, “fasce di garanzia” (protected time-bands) will keep a limited number of medium- and long-distance passenger services running, and each rail company has published its guaranteed trains list online.
The proximate cause of the strikes is the long-running renewal of the national collective labour contracts for air- and rail-transport workers. Unions accuse employers of offering below-inflation wage increases, cutting rest periods and ignoring staffing shortages heightened by the Milano-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics construction boom. The Ministry of Transport had originally tried to precettare (requisition) the strikes for 16 February, when the Olympics were in full swing, but eventually authorised a postponement to the end of the month.
Practical implications for employers are considerable. Companies should immediately review travel scheduled for 25-29 February, reroute critical itineraries through unaffected airports (e.g. Bologna or Naples for domestic hops) and consider switching Milan–Rome commuters onto the state-guaranteed Frecciarossa services. Freight forwarders should anticipate backlogs at maritime ports as rail intermodal volumes are diverted.
Looking ahead, the labour unrest also signals that Italy’s 2026 peak-season mobility may be bumpy. The government is expected to revisit the rules governing “minimum services” in essential sectors and may impose tighter numerical limits on strike participation during Olympic events, but that will take time and political consensus. Until then travel-risk managers should plan for short-notice disruptions to persist.
The aerial strike has been called by the major confederations—Filt-Cgil, Fit-Cisl, Uil-Trasporti, Ugl Trasporto Aereo, Anpac and Anp—and will involve flight-crew and ground-handling personnel at ITA Airways, easyJet, Vueling and the main airport service companies. ITA Airways has already pre-emptively cancelled roughly 55 % of its schedule on 26 February and warned that knock-on cancellations may affect flights late on 25 February and early on 27 February. Milan-Malpensa, Milan-Linate, Rome-Fiumicino, Venice-Marco Polo and Verona airports are considered the most exposed hubs. Travellers whose flights are cancelled can either change dates without penalty or request full refunds until 8 March.
Whether you’re rebooking flights or shifting itineraries to dodge the strikes, make sure your travel documentation is equally agile. VisaHQ can streamline the process of securing or extending Italian visas, provide up-to-date entry requirements and even organise courier collection of passports—saving valuable time when schedules are already disrupted. For details on how the service works, visit https://www.visahq.com/italy/
Less than 24 hours later the protest shifts to the tracks. Locomotive drivers and onboard staff belonging to the Ferrovie dello Stato (Trenitalia, Trenitalia Tper, Mercitalia), Italo and Trenord unions will stop work from 21:00 on 27 February until 20:59 on 28 February. Separate 8-hour actions by Unione Sindacale di Base will hit freight operations, while regional operators such as Arriva Italia (Turin) and Ferrovie Sud-Est (Bari) will stage parallel local strikes. As required by Italian law, “fasce di garanzia” (protected time-bands) will keep a limited number of medium- and long-distance passenger services running, and each rail company has published its guaranteed trains list online.
The proximate cause of the strikes is the long-running renewal of the national collective labour contracts for air- and rail-transport workers. Unions accuse employers of offering below-inflation wage increases, cutting rest periods and ignoring staffing shortages heightened by the Milano-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics construction boom. The Ministry of Transport had originally tried to precettare (requisition) the strikes for 16 February, when the Olympics were in full swing, but eventually authorised a postponement to the end of the month.
Practical implications for employers are considerable. Companies should immediately review travel scheduled for 25-29 February, reroute critical itineraries through unaffected airports (e.g. Bologna or Naples for domestic hops) and consider switching Milan–Rome commuters onto the state-guaranteed Frecciarossa services. Freight forwarders should anticipate backlogs at maritime ports as rail intermodal volumes are diverted.
Looking ahead, the labour unrest also signals that Italy’s 2026 peak-season mobility may be bumpy. The government is expected to revisit the rules governing “minimum services” in essential sectors and may impose tighter numerical limits on strike participation during Olympic events, but that will take time and political consensus. Until then travel-risk managers should plan for short-notice disruptions to persist.
