CAPA's ‘strike’ articles index: aviation labour is less militant than pre-2019
In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of news articles on the CAPA - Centre for Aviation website mentioning the word strike has been noticeably below previous levels.
The number of strike articles in 2025 was lower than in any year since 2009, when CAPA - Centre for Aviation began monitoring it, with the exception of 2020 and 2021 when COVID-19 was at its peak and aviation activity was severely curtailed.
This measure, which can be seen as a proxy for aviation labour militancy, still rises and falls broadly in line with airline industry operating profit margins. However, it has undergone a structural reduction in the midpoint around which the annual number varies.
The conclusion seems to be that aviation labour groups will still claim a greater share of industry profits when margins rise, but not as much as forcefully as they once did.
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