What are my rights if my flight from Malta is cancelled due to airline strikes?

For flights departing from an EU airport, including Malta, EU Regulation 261/2004 generally governs passenger rights in the event of cancellation, and whether you're entitled to compensation, beyond your basic rights to a refund or re-routing which generally apply regardless of the cause, depends significantly on whether the specific strike is classified as an 'extraordinary circumstance' beyond the airline's control, since strikes by the airline's own staff, such as pilots or cabin crew employed directly by the airline, have generally been treated by EU courts as within the airline's operational control and therefore not automatically exempting them from compensation obligations, whereas strikes by unrelated third parties, such as air traffic control staff, have sometimes been treated differently depending on the specific circumstances. Regardless of whether compensation ultimately applies to your specific situation, you are generally entitled at minimum to a choice between a full refund of your ticket or re-routing to your destination, along with a right to care, meals, and accommodation where relevant, while waiting for your alternative arrangements, and the airline should not simply leave you without any support regardless of how the underlying compensation question is ultimately resolved. Given the genuine legal nuance in exactly how different types of strikes are classified under EU passenger rights case law, if the airline is refusing compensation, it would be worth having the specific circumstances of your strike assessed, potentially through the Malta Competition and Consumer Affairs Authority (MCCAA) or a lawyer, before accepting that no compensation is due.