Thread: Spain: Military takes over air traffic control

Spain: Military takes over air traffic control



By HAROLD HECKLE
Associated Press MADRID (AP) - Spain's deputy prime minister said the nation's military was ordered on Friday to take control of the nation's airspace after a massive sickout by air traffic controllers closed down airports and created travel chaos.
Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba said the Ministry of Defense had "taken control of air traffic in all the national territory" and the Army chief of staff would take all decisions relating to the organization, planning, supervision and control of air traffic.
The sickout forced the country's air traffic authority to close eight airports, including the major European hub in Madrid, on the eve of a major national holiday, stranding 200,000 travelers.
The controllers left their posts amid a lengthy dispute over working conditions and just hours after the administration of Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero approved an austerity measure to partially privatize airports, and to hand over management of Madrid and Barcelona airports to the private sector.
Spain's air traffic authority, known as Aena, said some controllers were beginning to return to work late Friday, with around half of them back at their posts in Barcelona airport and a full complement on duty in the Canary Islands.
The office of Spain's prosecutor said it was studying whether the sickout amounted to a criminal offense.
In airports around Spain, angry passengers complained they were left with no information on when they might be able to head to their destinations.
By 9 p.m., five hours after the sickout began, Spanish flagship carrier Iberia said it had canceled all of its flights out of Madrid until 11 a.m. Saturday.
"It's a disgrace, how can a group of people be so selfish as to wreck the plans of so many people?" said dentist Marcela Vega, 35, stuck at Madrid airport unable to travel to Chile with her husband, 5-year-old son and baby boy.
Aena issued an advisory telling all passengers planning to take flights to stay away from airports because "air traffic has been interrupted." There was no immediate word when the sickout might end.
Aena said Spanish government authorities were in contact with Europe's air traffic agency, Eurocontrol, and the United State's FAA about how best to deal with international flights arriving from across the Atlantic. The controllers could face disciplinary action or criminal charges, said Aena chief Juan Ignacio Lema, who called the situation "intolerable" and asked controllers to return to work.
"We're asking the controllers to stop blackmailing the Spanish people," Lema said.
Thousands were camped out in Madrid's airport Friday night, not knowing whether their flights would leave or not.
"It's unbelievable, total chaos, nobody knows what to do," said computer technician Roberto Sanchez, 28, planning on spending the long weekend in Italy.
Spain's air traffic controllers have been involved for over a year in bitter negotiations with state-owned Aena over wages, working conditions and privileges.
The dispute intensified in February when the government restricted overtime and thus cut average pay of controllers from euro350,000 ($463,610) a year to around euro200,000 ($264,920).
The sickout also closed four airports in the Canary islands, a favorite winter destination in Europe, and airports in prime tourism locations of Ibiza, Palma de Mallorca and Menorca.
Spanish Development Minister Jose Blanco convened an emergency meeting and his ministry issued a terse statement, saying "controllers have begun to communicate their incapacity to continue offering their services, abandoning their places of work."
Blanco later told reporters that authorities were forced to close airspace around Madrid for safety reasons, and that the government was putting into place an emergency action plan. But he gave no details on when airports would reopen and flights might resume.
"We won't permit this blackmail that they are using to turn citizens into hostages," Blanco said
The controllers' union has been complaining for weeks that members have already worked their maximum hours for all of 2010, and that the country's 2,000 controllers are overworked and understaffed. Friday's sickout was not expected, but the union has warned it could mount a sickout over the Christmas holiday. They are prohibited by law from going on strike.
Aena said 90 percent of its controllers had left their workstations and that only 10 controllers remained on duty at Madrid's Barajas to handle emergencies.
Madrid's Barajas airport had 1,300 flights scheduled for Friday, but it wasn't clear how many had taken off and landed before the sickout.
For all of Spain, more than 5,000 flights were scheduled for the nation and about 3,000 had taken off or landed before the sickout began in the late afternoon.
Monday in a holiday marking the Day of the Spanish Constitution, and Wednesday is a religious holiday; many Spaniards use the period to take a five-day weekend.
Aena calculated that around 4 million people had booked flights for this period.
Many weekend sporting events were likely to be affected by air travel problems, with football league leader Barcelona set to travel by road and rail to Osasuna, the club said, while Valencia was to take the train to play against Real Madrid.
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Alan Clendenning and Jorge Sainz contributed from Madrid.

Under Threat of Jail, Spain's Striking Air Traffic Controllers Start Returning


Updated: 1 hour 37 minutes ago





Daniel Woolls and Harold Heckle
AP
MADRID (Dec. 4) - Spain placed striking air traffic controllers under military authority Saturday and threatened them with jail terms in an unprecedented emergency order to get planes back in the skies and clear chaotic airports clogged with irate travelers.

Hours after the order was issued at an emergency Cabinet meeting, officials said strikers were returning to work, but that it could take up to two days before flights return to normal.

Spain got the all-clear from Eurocontrol, Europe's air traffic control agency, to reopen air space closed Friday when the wildcat strike began, ruining the start of a long holiday weekend for hundreds of thousands of people.

Many travelers stood should-to-shoulder at airport terminals or slept anywhere they could, including hunching over abandoned customer service desks or against luggage carts.

The chaos served up yet another headache for a beleaguered Socialist government writhing at the center of Europe's debt crisis and struggling to overcome recession as it trails badly in the polls with elections due in 2012.

A few flights have resumed at more than half a dozen airports including Madrid, Bilbao and Las Palmas in the Canary Islands, the civil aviation authority AENA said.

But Development Minister Jose Blanco said it will be a while before planes can start taking off and landing at normal levels in one of Europe's top tourist destinations and a sea of stranded travelers can make new travel arrangements.

"We think that in 24 to 48 hours we can be back to normal if the air traffic controllers comply with the order and all of them work in line with their obligations," Blanco told Spanish television. Eurocontrol and the controllers' union USCA also said things were gradually getting back to normal after the government's threat of jail for defiant strikers.

The crisis was reminiscent of a wildcat air traffic controllers strike in 1981 in the U.S., although the Spanish government has stopped short of simply firing controllers and breaking their union as President Ronald Reagan did at the time.

Airports in Madrid, Barcelona and elsewhere were packed Friday night and Saturday with bewildered travelers standing in huge crowds or sitting on check-in weighing scales, stairs or just on the floor. Police handed out blankets for a bit of comfort.

"It is very bad. Tourists from all over the world are affected," Yair Orgler, 71, of Tel Aviv, told APTN at Madrid's Barajas airport. "The situation is really serious. I hope it will be solved soon because we don't know what to do."

In announcing the approval of a "state of alarm" after the emergency Cabinet meeting, Deputy Prime Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba accused air traffic controllers of "blackmailing all of our citizens."

He apologized to angry travelers who spent Friday night sleeping at airports.

This is usually one of the busiest travel weekends of the year in Spain because Monday and Wednesday of next week are holidays, and many people plan to take Tuesday off as well.

The air traffic controllers launched their stoppage in the culmination of a long-running dispute with the government over working conditions, work schedules and benefits.

Spanish air traffic controllers get triple time pay for overtime hours, for instance, and made much of their salary from this, earning an average yearly salary of euro350,000 ($463,600).

But in February the government slashed their allowed overtime hours drastically, infuriating the controllers who saw their pay nearly cut in half, although that is still roughly three times what Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero makes. The average yearly salary in Spain is about euro20,000 ($26,500).

The final straw seems to have been a decree approved by the Cabinet on Friday under which controllers who miss work shifts because of illness or certain other reasons must make up lost hours and can be subject to medical checkups immediately if they call in sick.

Blanco said air traffic controllers - Spain has about 2,000 - have been counting hours spent at union meetings, for instance, as hours spent on the job and the decree passed Friday ended this practice.

"It was a matter of clarifying what an hour of work is. That should not bother anyone," he told Spanish television.

Perez Rubalcaba said that in Spain as in other countries, air traffic controllers are a highly paid specialized group because of their unique skills, but in this case Spanish controllers are using their status to defend what he called "intolerable privileges."

The government reacted to the strike by placing Spain's air traffic control centers and towers under military control.

The flagship carrier Iberia said early Saturday it had canceled all its flights in Spain until early Sunday morning. Air France and Irish airline Ryanair also canceled all flights to and from Spain.

Thousands of Swedish, Norwegian and Danish air passengers were forced to put their holidays on hold and wait around in airport lounges and hotels as southern-bound airlines awaited the traffic chaos in Spain to ease.

The "state of alarm" clause included in Spain's 1978 constitution, passed three years after the death of longtime dictator Gen. Francisco Franco, had never previously been invoked. It was designed to help governments deal with catastrophes such as earthquakes or floods or, as in this case, the collapse of an essential public service like access to air travel.