Alitalia strike

Italy's largest airline, Alitalia, cancelled 96 flights yesterday, most of them domestic, due to a four-hour strike by air traffic controllers.

The striking workers have a laundry list of complaints, including a lack of adequate staffing and the failure of the air traffic controllers' authority to begin promised professional training, such as English-language lessons.

State-controlled Alitalia, which is currently being put up for auction by the Italian government, has partly blamed Italy's strike-prone unions for its chronic losses topping €1 million per day.