Flight chaos as controllers strike
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Empty luggage trailers tell their own story at Linate airport, Milan
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ROME, Italy -- Italian air traffic controllers walked off the job Thursday, forcing at least 20,000 passengers to change plans, while more travel chaos loomed with bus, train and metro strikes threatening a "Black Friday."
Worst hit of the airlines was Italy's state-controlled carrier Alitalia which grounded 334 flights across the country on Thursday, including international and intercontinental services.
German airline Lufthansa cancelled 54 flights and British Airways said it had scrapped 11.
Passengers such as Margherita Acampora were not amused. She was supposed to be in England starting her new job, but found herself queuing at Rome's Fiumicino airport instead.
"I'd called yesterday to check my flight to Manchester hadn't been cancelled so I was calm. But then I arrived at the airport and got the terrible news that the plane wasn't leaving. I'm queuing up, praying I can leave tomorrow," she said.
The eight-hour stoppage by Italian air traffic controllers, protesting over pay conditions, is the second in as many months and kicks off a January slew of protests across Italy's transport sector.
Commuters and pupils face headaches getting to work and school on Friday, with buses, trams and underground trains stuck in their depots as drivers resume their pre-Christmas strike action despite a new pay deal.
Public transport job contracts expired in 2001 and workers had demanded a pay rise of 106 euros ($133) a month while firms were proposing an increase of 41 euros.
An unidentified traveler sleeps at strike-hit Linate airport, Milan
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Trade unions and transport firms compromised at 81 euros a month plus a one-off payment of 970 euros, but many workers said the raise would not cover their loss of purchasing power since the end of their contracts.
After the public transport strikes, the spotlight swings back to Italy's airports, with a planned walk-out by Alitalia staff on January 19.
Employees are against Alitalia's three-year industrial plan, which aims to pull the debt-laden carrier back into profit but includes a hotly contested pay freeze, along with a plan to cut the workforce by 2,700.
In December, staff staged an impromptu protest that grounded 80 flights and ended in violence at Fiumicino airport, with protesters throwing stones at police.
Labor unions have said they cannot rule out further wildcat actions alongside official strikes.
Alitalia, which is forecasting an operating loss of more than 400 million euros, says its latest rescue plan will pull it back into profit in 2005 and make it fit to join the merger of Air France and KLM.
Alitalia representatives were due to sit down with unions and Transport Minister Pietro Lunardi later on Thursday to try to break the impasse.
Copyright 2004
Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
