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Spanish air traffic controllers marched back to work as airports reopen

04 December 2010 17:51 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Spain declared a State of Alert in the wake of the walkout, which has paralysed Spanish air space and all airports, and then ordered the controllers back to work, APA reports quoting telegraph.co.uk website.
"I cannot talk to you properly now," an air traffic controller at Madrid’s Barajas Airport told The Sunday Telegraph in a half whisper, his voice quavering on his mobile.
"There are civil guards here, with pistols. If we don’t start work now, we will be arrested.
"The first flights should start at 3pm (2pm UK) and that should be for the whole of Spain. All my colleagues have been forced to return to work or face the consequences."
The air traffic controllers’ return to work, and the subsequent reopening of Spanish airspace, means that flights will begin to depart again.
Airports across Spain were reopening, although it was not clear whether previously cancelled flights - all those by Easyjet, Ryanair and Iberia - would be able to depart.
Once the government had turned over management of Spain’s air traffic control to the military last night, the controllers’ union, USCA, faced very serious opposition.
And after the State of Alert, one level below a full emergency, was ratified by the cabinet at midday on Saturday the stage was set for rapid retaliation by the government against the illegal strikers who had paralysed all Spanish air space and airports since 5pm Friday.
Threatened with immediate imprisonment for sedition if they did not obey their new military commanders, and the show of force as in Madrid, the controllers capitulated.
It may take at least a week for air services to return for normal and for all stranded passengers to reach their destinations.
JosÃ© Luis RodrÃguez Zapatero, the Spanish prime minister, described the wildcat strike by 2,400 air traffic controllers as "intolerable" and that the government could not accept "the blackmail of the public."
He said the elite controllers were using their position as "a work monopoly" to create "an unsustainable situation."
Air routes between Spain and the UK are the busiest in Europe, carrying over 35m passengers per year, and 20,000 Britons have been hit by the closure of Spanish air space.