Italy December 12 Strike Hits Trains And Airport Links

Travellers booked on Italy December 12 general strike transport day now face widespread disruption, as CGIL's nationwide walkout on Friday December 12, 2025 moves from calendar entry to concrete risk for trains, airport links, and some local services across cities from Milan to Rome. Official notices confirm a 21 hour strike window from 0001 to 2100 for national rail staff at FS Group, Trenitalia, Trenitalia Tper, Italo, and Trenord, alongside broader action in public and private sectors. For travellers, that translates into fewer trains, patchy airport rail options, and a higher chance of having to use taxis or private transfers to make key flights or cruise departures.

The Italy December 12 general strike transport action is part of CGIL's protest against the government's 2026 budget, but its immediate effect is operational, not political, because the 0001 to 2100 rail walkout and related stoppages remove much of the country's usual capacity on one of December's busiest Fridays.

How The December 12 Strike Works

According to Italy's official strike registers and operator notices, the general strike runs for the entire working day on Friday December 12, 2025, with the rail sector formally covered from 0001 to 2100. Within that envelope, law 146 and union agreements force operators to provide "servizi minimi" or minimum services in defined peak windows, typically early morning and early evening.

For the national rail network, FS Group, Trenitalia, Trenitalia Tper, and Trenord all confirm that many long distance and regional trains may be cancelled or altered, but that a specific list of long distance services and regional trains will still operate as guaranteed services. Italo, the open access high speed operator, is following the same pattern, with an official list of guaranteed Freccia style equivalents published separately.

In Lombardy, Trenord clarifies that on December 12 only trains that depart before the strike and arrive by 0100, plus those in the guaranteed time bands 0600 to 0900 and 1800 to 21:00, are protected, while other regional, suburban, and airport services may be suspended.

Impact On Trains And Key Routes

For most travellers, the strike's main pain point will be trains between major cities such as Rome, Florence, Bologna, Milan, Venice, and Naples, and the regional and suburban lines that feed them. Rete Ferroviaria Italiana's strike advisory and Trenitalia's guaranteed services page make clear that both high speed and InterCity routes will see heavy thinning, with only a limited skeleton of guaranteed trains.

Italo's guaranteed list covers core axes such as Naples to Milan, Rome to Milan, Turin to Naples, and Venice to Rome, but even here there are long gaps once you look beyond the protected departures. Travellers who currently hold reservations on Italo or Trenitalia services that do not appear on the guaranteed lists should expect a high probability of cancellation or rescheduling and should not assume that a generic "ticket valid all day" will translate into an easy seat on an alternative train.

The rail strike also covers regional and commuter lines, so movements in and out of secondary hubs such as Verona, Genoa, Bari, and Palermo are at risk outside the guaranteed windows. On some corridors, particularly shorter regional links, service may effectively collapse between mid morning and late afternoon, then return in a reduced form in the evening.

Because December 12 falls on a Friday with heavy pre Christmas travel and a preceding ferry strike from December 9 to 11 that already stresses Sardinia and Sicily connections, the day is likely to see very busy guaranteed trains and spillover demand onto roads and domestic flights.

Airport Rail Links And Airport Operations

Italy's general strike does not formally shut airports, and the air transport sector is largely exempt on December 12 because aviation unions and ENAC have already locked in a separate four hour nationwide aviation strike for December 17. That said, travellers will still feel the December 12 action around key gateways because the rail operators that feed airport stations are on strike.

For Milan Malpensa Airport (MXP), Trenord and Malpensa Express confirm that most airport trains will not run during the strike. Instead, airport access is guaranteed by replacement buses operating non stop between Milano Cadorna and Malpensa, and between Stabio and Malpensa for the S50 corridor, with departures from Via Paleocapa 1 near Cadorna. These coaches maintain connectivity but add road congestion risk and longer journey times, so anyone connecting to long haul flights should treat them as slower than the usual train.

For Rome's Leonardo da Vinci International Airport (FCO), mainline routes such as the Leonardo Express and regional trains from Roma Termini and Roma Tiburtina fall under the same national strike envelope, although Italian coverage suggests that core services are likely to be prioritized on guaranteed lists. The key complication in Rome is that, unlike the dedicated December 9 Atac strike, the December 12 general strike does not directly include Atac metro staff, so the metro network is expected to run closer to normal, while some regional and suburban rail that feeds Termini may still be thinned.

Other airport rail and bus links, including services to Milan Linate Airport (LIN), Rome Ciampino Airport (CIA), and regional airports in Bologna, Venice, and Florence, are exposed to local bus and coach strikes and to the wider rail action. Where local agencies are part of the CGIL action, they publish their own guaranteed time bands, usually early morning and one or two mid day blocks, so travellers need to check city by city.

Local Transport, Ferries, And Taxis

Beyond the national rail operators, the December 12 general strike includes wide slices of local public transport, waste collection, and public services. In practice, the picture is uneven. Rome's Atac staff are exempt on December 12 because they already staged a 24 hour strike on December 9, so metro lines A, B, and C should operate near normal, with more risk on regional rail feeders.

In Milan, Money.it and local advisories suggest that the Atm metro, tram, and bus network should also run largely as normal, while the suburban rail Passante, operated by Trenord, is at risk along with the rest of Lombardy's rail network. Travellers should not assume that an urban ticket will automatically connect them to a working Passante train to or from the airport or outer suburbs.

Elsewhere, the strain is clearer. In Turin, operator GTT warns that buses, trams, and the metro will only run reliably in guaranteed time bands, typically from 0600 to 0900 and 1200 to 1500, with likely cuts and gaps outside those windows. In parts of Tuscany and central Italy, regional bus operators show similar patterns, with mid day and late evening services most exposed.

The national ferry strike by Tirrenia CIN and Moby, which runs from 1500 on December 9 to 1500 on December 11, technically ends the day before the general strike but may still cause knock on rescheduling and backlogs for sailings to and from Sardinia, Sicily, and smaller islands over the December 12 weekend.

Taxi services and ride hail alternatives are not centrally shut down by the December 12 general strike, but in a handful of cities some taxi cooperatives may stage solidarity actions or face congestion that effectively limits availability. Travellers should assume higher demand for taxis at rail stations and airports and budget extra time or prebook where possible.

How The December 17 Aviation Strike Fits In

Although December 12 itself does not bring a dedicated aviation sector strike, travellers planning flights through Italy need to treat the date as part of a wider two step pattern. ENAC's strike calendar confirms that on Wednesday December 17, 2025, a four hour nationwide aviation strike from 1300 to 1700 will hit ENAV air traffic control staff for central Italy, ground handling companies in the Assohandlers group, and airline staff at ITA Airways, Vueling, easyJet, Air France, KLM, and others.

Travel advisories already frame December 17 as a "black day" for short haul flights, particularly domestic and intra European services, because air traffic control, handling, and airline crews are all involved at once. From a planning perspective, that means travellers who roll over disrupted December 12 trips by a few days should avoid creating tight day of flight connections on the seventeenth, or at least should target flights that fall fully outside the 1300 to 1700 window.

What Travelers Should Do Now

For rail, the key step is to cross check existing bookings against the official guaranteed train lists from Trenitalia, Italo, and Trenord, then move reservations onto guaranteed services where possible. If a booked train is not on the guaranteed list, assume it may be cancelled and treat any alternative as "standby" rather than a sure thing.

For airport access, travellers using Milan Malpensa Airport (MXP) should decide now whether to rely on Malpensa Express replacement buses from Milano Cadorna or to switch to coach, taxi, or private transfer options. In Rome, it is safer to push airport transfers into early morning or evening, when guaranteed rail services and a fully running metro network give more options to recover from a missed train.

Travellers holding same day cruise departures from Civitavecchia, Genoa, or Venice should arrive in the port city at least one night earlier rather than trying to pair a December 12 intercity train with a same day embarkation. Those with non refundable hotels or tours on December 13 may want to move their inbound rail journeys to late on December 11 or to guaranteed early morning December 12 trains.

As a broader play, anyone with flexible flights into or out of Italy around the mid December period should avoid itineraries that require rail transfers on December 12 and flights during the 1300 to 1700 aviation strike window on December 17. Instead, aim for itineraries that keep you in place during those windows, and lean on Adept's separate coverage of the December 17 aviation strike and our guide to handling transport strikes in Italy for more detailed airline and rights information.

Background And Context

CGIL's December 12 general strike is part of a wider wave of labour unrest in Italy and across Europe, tied to cost of living pressures, public sector staffing, and specific grievances over the 2026 budget, including new charges on banks and insurance companies.

For travellers, what matters is less the macro politics and more the pattern of repeated, well signposted strikes that are now a structural feature of winter travel in Italy. The December calendar includes the Rome Atac strike on December 9, the Tirrenia CIN and Moby ferry strike from December 9 to 11, the December 12 general strike, and the December 17 aviation strike, all of which can be managed with advance planning but will punish anyone who assumes "normal" service throughout.

Travellers who build itineraries around guaranteed windows, travel a day earlier where it matters, and keep a close eye on operator apps and Adept's strike updates should still be able to move through Italy with more stress than usual but without catastrophic disruption.

Sources

• Reuters, Italy's largest union calls general strike on December 12 over budget plans
• Italian Ministry of Transport, December 12 2025 general strike register
• Trenitalia, guaranteed trains and strike information for December 12 2025
• Italo Treno, strike notice and guaranteed trains for December 12 2025
• ENAC, national air transport strike December 17 2025 guaranteed flights
• Euronews, Italy faces travel disruption as unions call nationwide strikes in November and December