Spain to declare State of Alert over air traffic control strikes
Spain is due to declare a State of Alert at an emergency cabinet meeting called for 9am Saturday in the wake of a lightening walkout by Spanish air traffic controllers at 5pm on Friday which has since paralysed Spanish air space.
Iberian airplanes lined up on the tarmac at Madrid airport Photo: AFP
By Edward Owen, Madrid 7:43AM GMT 04 Dec 2010
At 9.30pm on Friday an emergency Royal Decree was signed ordering the Ministry of Defence to take control of Spain’s air space. By Saturday the military will have moved into all control centres and control towers in Spain.
But the civilian air traffic controllers refuse to work under them and there are not sufficient military controllers to safely take over.
The controllers, who are the best paid in Europe with annual salaries of up to one million euros, have been in dispute with the socialist government for a year over plans, ratified this week, to partly privatise the Spanish state airports authority, AENA.
With no end to the covert strike in sight, at 2am Saturday, Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba, Spain’s deputy prime minister, announced the proposed proclamation of the State of Alert. "If a controller does not show up to his work place he will be placed immediately in custody accused of a crime which could mean serious prison sentences," Mr Rubalcaba said.
It is the first time a State of Alert has been declared under the 1978 Constitution, ironically celebrated with a public holiday this Monday. It permits the authorities to take over in cases of major disasters or the paralysation of public services. Air traffic controllers who refuse to carry out minimum services, as demanded by their new bosses, the military, could face up to eight years in jail for sedition.
Overnight AENA announced that so far 330,000 passengers have missed their flights at the beginning of a major winter break, Spain’s Constitution Holiday weekend with public holidays on Monday and Wednesday (the Immaculate Conception). Ryanair alone has cancelled 74 flights with Spain scheduled for Friday and Saturday. Spain – UK air routes are busiest in Europe, carrying over 35m passengers per year, and thousands of Britons have been hit by the closure of Spanish air space.
Overnight the Spanish military’s emergency response unit, UME, distributed blankets and water at Madrid’s Barajas airport where thousands were stranded waiting for budget flights. All airport hotels were full with people sleeping even sleeping in lobbies. It was the same story all around Spain including the Balearic and Canary Islands. AENA said that since the sudden walkout started, 1,686 of 5,032 flights scheduled for Friday in Spain had been cancelled affecting 330,000 passengers.
An estimated two million passengers were due to travel by air this holiday weekend in Spain. The Spanish military have moved into 47 control towers, four major air traffic control centres and all airports. There were immediate plans to open smaller military-civilian airports to passenger flights. Barcelona airport partially reopened at 10pm Friday but only 15 flights took off.
