'Single Sky' plan causes strike

PARIS -- An air traffic controllers' strike over a plan to unify Europe's disjointed skies crippled service Wednesday, grounding flights and stranding passengers throughout much of the continent.\nMajor carriers canceled 7,700 flights either in or out of France or through French airspace during a one-day strike in France and several other countries to protest the 15-nation European Union's "single sky" plan.\nThe continent-wide plan is aimed at reducing congestion and delays by bringing all air traffic controllers under centralized supervision. Europe's poorly organized airspace is a patchwork of air traffic control zones managed by dozens of different air traffic control centers using different monitoring systems.\nBut unions say centralized control will result in job losses, and that pressure to reduce costs could also result in a privatization of their services, thus increasing safety risks.\nIt was the third time in two years that air traffic controllers in France held a work stoppage over the "single sky" plan, but the first time that other countries joined in the action.\nFrance's Civil Aviation Union said talks were desperately needed between EU officials and pilots, air traffic controllers and unions.\n"If we feel that the situation is blocked, we'll be forced to strike again," said union spokesman Patrick Malandin. "And if there has to be a next time, maybe the strike won't be limited to a single day."\nNeither the airlines nor the unions that had called the strike were able to estimate how many passengers were affected.\nApart from the full-day walkout in France, air traffic controllers observed less crippling work stoppages in Greece, Portugal, Italy and Hungary.\nAir France said passengers could count on no more than 10 percent of its domestic and European flights but that 90 percent of its long-haul flights were to fly as scheduled. Air traffic was not fully paralyzed because a small number of controllers remained on the job.\nMany exhausted passengers had little choice but to wait out the strike to get to their destination.\n"I've got to wait 32 hours to get back to Birmingham," said John Carroll, who was traveling to the central England city when he got stranded at Charles de Gaulle airport outside Paris. "I just came back from Japan at 4 o'clock this morning."\nBritish Airways said it had canceled all but four of its 126 flights in and out of France, affecting about 15,000 passengers. It also canceled 38 flights to Italy, Switzerland, Spain, Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg.\nHeathrow, Britain's busiest airport, was unusually quiet Wednesday.\n"I think people have seen it on the news and if their flights have been canceled, they've just not come," said Dal Gill, manager of a Boots pharmacy at the airport.\nAirlines reported many canceled flights between their host nations and France.\nGermany's Lufthansa said it canceled 130 flights. Swiss Air Lines said 50 flights were canceled, affecting more than 2,300 passengers. Portugal's national airline TAP cited 52 cancelations. Finnair was to fly only one of its four daily round-trip flights to Paris from Helsinki.\nSixty-seven flights were canceled at the airport in Frankfurt, Germany, continental Europe's biggest, said Robert Payne, spokesman for airport operator Fraport.\nIn Italy, air traffic controllers held a one-hour, afternoon strike. Alitalia canceled 48 international and two domestic flights, and rescheduled 100 flights, affecting about 8,000 passengers.\nMost Portuguese airports came to a standstill for four hours. In Spain, delays or cancellations were reported in Barcelona, Malaga and Palma de Mallorca.\nMore than 130 flights were canceled between France and Switzerland's three airports. The problems became worse for southbound passengers after air traffic controllers in Greece, Portugal and Italy joined the strike, Swiss officials said.\nA similar strike by French workers last December caused massive disruptions across Europe with the cancellation of hundreds of flights. Another strike in June 2000 grounded 90 percent of flights departing from Paris.\nEuropean Union transportation ministers met Monday in Luxembourg to discuss the "single sky" plan. The European Commission, the EU's executive branch, estimates that the current system costs $4.7 billion annually in extra fuel, airline staffing costs and lost passenger time.\n"The proposals are for greater effectiveness," said Jean-Christophe Filori, an EU Commission spokesman. "There is no desire to push for privatization. We want to make skies and air traffic more manageable"