Spanish air traffic returning to normal - Summary

Sat, 04 Dec 2010

Madrid - Spain's airspace was reopened Saturday after a wildcat protest by air traffic controllers paralyzed airports, the Infrastructure Ministry announced.

The unofficial work stoppage was estimated to have affected more than 600,000 passengers, thousands of whom spent the night at airports in Madrid, Barcelona and Majorca.

The airport authority AENA said controllers were returning to work all over country, and that flights would resume in the late afternoon.

Trans-Atlantic flights, some of which had been diverted to Portugal, had already begun landing at Madrid airport.

Deputy Prime Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba had said earlier that airspace would remain closed until Sunday. All airlines operating at Madrid airport canceled their flights until 6 am (5 am GMT) on Sunday.

The air controllers began returning to work after the government decreed a state of emergency to force them to resume their duties immediately.

Controllers who refused to do so faced being prosecuted for disobedience under military law, Rubalcaba said.

The government Friday placed airports under military control after 70 per cent of air controllers left their posts or did not show up for work, most of them claiming to be sick.

The state of emergency was declared for the first time since Spain became a democracy after the death of dictator Francisco Franco in 1975.

Air controllers who continued refusing to work risked facing arrest, immediate prosecution and lengthy prison sentences. The controllers were to remain under military law even after the protest was over.

AENA advised passengers to check with their airlines before going to the airport. A total of 4,300 flights had been scheduled in Spain on Saturday.

Travel operator TUI canceled all new departures from Germany in the afternoon so that aircraft and hotels in Spain were available to serve stranded customers. Another European holidays company, Thomas Cook, said the strike had stranded 3,500 of its customers in Spain.

Extra bus and train services were introduced for air passengers who had intended to take national flights during the long week-end, which extends into national holidays on Monday and Wednesday.

The wildcat action was seen as a protest by the controllers over a decision on new working hours approved by the Spanish cabinet on Friday.

The air controllers have been involved for months in a wage dispute with the Transportation Ministry and AENA.

Many of the stranded passengers expressed anger at the air controllers, whom they saw as a privileged group seeking ever better work conditions.

More than 2,000 passengers announced court action against the air controllers.

The controllers were "blackmailing" Spaniards in order to preserve "intolerable privileges," Rubalcaba charged.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/356577,returning-normal-summary.html.