Hundreds of thousands of passengers packed Spain’s airports yesterday as air services returned to normal after the military forced air traffic controllers to end a 24-hour wildcat strike under threat of jail.
Public Works Minister Jose Blanco said 97 per cent of controllers who were scheduled to work had turned up and 162,000 passengers had been able to fly since the nation’s airspace reopened late on Saturday.
“We are re-establishing normality bit by bit and now it is time to do justice,” he told a news conference before adding that airport operator AENA had opened disciplinary proceedings against 442 controllers.
Controllers had called in sick en masse on Friday, rapidly shutting down the nation’s airspace at the start of one of Spain’s busiest holiday weekends in a protest over working hours and benefits.
But they returned to work after the government declared a state of alert for the first time since the death of General Francisco Franco in 1975, putting them under military command with the threat of jail terms for refusing orders.
Traffic controllers told the press that troops forced them to work “at gunpoint” in Palma de Mallorca control tower, but there was little sympathy for the staff who earn an average €200,000 a year.
The strike hit an estimated 300,000 passengers, whipping up the most chaotic scenes since an Icelandic volcano erupted in April and halted 100,000 flights worldwide.
While airports were once again operating at normal levels, thousands of passengers still faced further delays as airlines tried to clear the backlog caused by the strike.
A total 4,000 flights were scheduled, said AENA, but many people gave up long weekend plans. Today and Wednesday are public holidays and many Spaniards take Tuesday off too so as to have a five-day break.
Long lines formed at check-in counters and customer service desks, all merging into a crowd.
Miriam Mellado, 54, had been scheduled to leave for Rome with Iberia on Friday. She was told she could fly out yesterday but declined and joined a line of 30 people seeking a refund.
“We are no longer interested. We have to be back on Tuesday so it no longer makes sense. All this because of people who earn a lot of money and do nothing,” she said.
Hundreds of people spend the night at Madrid-Barajas airport, some lying on cardboard, others on check-in weighing scales.
The army distributed over 1,000 blankets to stranded passengers at the airport, one of the busiest in Europe, as well as bottles of water.
Seisdedos, whose flight to Almeria was scrapped Saturday, said he had never voted for Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. “But in this situation he did things properly. They should all lose their jobs.”
Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba said the state of alert will last 15 days and the government is ready to extend it if needed.
“The government is absolutely determined this will not happen again,” he said, warning that Madrid had the powers to stop the strikers over Christmas and afterwards, and it would not hesitate to use them.