The government today decided to intervene in the dispute between Iberia and its pilots, forcing them into compulsory arbitration as a means to ending the conflict between them.

The pilots' union, Sepla, immediately agreed to the arbitration order.

Vice-president Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, gave a press conference after the Council of Ministers meeting this morning, confirming that the move to compulsory arbitration means that the strike action has to be called off straight away.

Sáenz de Santamaría underlined the fact that this move was designed to put an end to the series of one-day strikes that began back in December, and added that both parties involved (the trade union Sepla and the airline, Iberia) had been looking for an arbitrator.
 
The Spanish airline was once again forced to cancel flights today (122 of the 334 scheduled - 37 %), on the sixth day of strike action called by pilots in protest over the creation of the low-cost airline Iberia Express.