(Image: NQ)
Travellers flying from Scotland to Italy are experiencing long delays on Friday, as strike action causes disruption.
Flights have been delayed by up to six hours due to a walkout which is taking place all day, and issues with air traffic control.
EasyJet pilots and cabin crew who are members of the Usb Lavoro Privato union walked out at midnight over working conditions, shift patterns, and pay.
That has caused major disruption for those flying to Italy, particularly to Milan Malpensa which is the budget airline's hub in the country.
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In addition, the country's national air traffic control supplier, ENAV, said issues had been detected with its systems and restrictions had been placed on entering Italian airspace.
A statement said: "During the night, anomalies were found on the geographical data transmission network in support of air traffic control services throughout the country. Thanks to the activation of the planned contingency systems, ENAV guaranteed regular air traffic management until 6am this morning, without any reduction in operational capacity.
"Starting from 6am, in consideration of the progressive increase in air traffic and the persistence of anomalies, in order to continue to ensure maximum safety of operations, flow regulation measures have been introduced, which involve a temporary reduction in the management capacity of aircraft in Italian airspace.
"The technical checks, which are still in progress, have identified the origin of the anomalies in the data transmission network.
"ENAV is working to identify the causes and restore the full operation of the systems. It can be ruled out that said anomalies are attributable to malicious activity."
The combination of issues has caused chaos for people travelling from Scotland to Italy.
Passengers on the 10.15 service from Edinburgh to Malpensa have been informed that, as of Friday morning, the flight is not scheduled to depart until after 4pm.
One said: "I got a message five minutes after getting on the bus to the airport, I'm just hoping it gets brought forward."
A message from EasyJet blamed an "Air Traffic Control equipment failure in Italy".
It was later announced that flight had been cancelled.
Anyone flying to Italy is advised to check with their airline, with EasyJet likely to face the the biggest issues due to the strike and ATC failure overlapping.
An EasyJet spokesperson said: “Due to an Italian Air Traffic Control system failure this morning, some flights to and from Italy have been delayed or unable to operate, including one return flight between Edinburgh and Milan Malpensa.
“We have been doing all possible to minimise the impact of the ATC failure for our customers, providing those on cancelled flights with the option to rebook or receive a refund and hotel accommodation and meals where required.
“Whilst this is outside of our control we are sorry for any inconvenience caused.”