Paris:
Travelers across Europe braced for chaos as a strike by British Airways cabin crew entered its third day on Monday and labor strife spread to other airlines.
The British Airways strike was scheduled to end at midnight Monday and resume Saturday for four more days.
Pilots at TAP Portugal have called a five-day strike to begin Friday. Alitalia canceled flights Monday because of a four-hour strike by crew members.
Air France said on Monday that it had narrowly averted a strike after unions that had planned a four-day walkout to begin Sunday agreed to return to the bargaining table.
The showdowns with unions come as European airlines, hurt by falling revenue and an uncertain economic outlook, have taken a hard line on costs. Formerly state-run airlines are having to compete with nimbler low-cost rivals like Ryanair and easyJet in their regional businesses, while battling Middle Eastern and Asian carriers for intercontinental traffic.
"The biggest issue for the European-flag carriers is labor costs," said Stephen Furlong, an airline analyst at Davy Stockbrokers in Dublin. "Only fuel eats up more of their revenue. So to close the gap, they have to restructure or consolidate." The carriers, he said, had reached a point "where labor is pushing back."
Advocates say passengers are caught in the middle. "We're pawns in other people's disputes," said Simon Evans, chief executive of the Air Transport Users Council in Britain. "We're powerless and they know it."
British Airways said Monday that over the first two days of the strike, the airline operated 78 percent of its intercontinental flights and 50 percent of its short-distance flights.
It estimated the cost of the strike at 7 million pounds ($10.6 million) a day, but added that it expected its annual earnings for the full year through March 31 to be "broadly unchanged." A British Airways spokesman in London declined to say how many flights had been canceled on Monday. "We're looking to move over 60 percent of our passengers today," said the spokesman, who did not want to be identified because of company policy. "The contingency plans are going well."
The Unite union, which is representing the British Airways crews, said Monday morning that of 77 flights scheduled, 37 had been empty and that most service to the United States was "out." It said only three flights were working normally, to Hong Kong, Bangkok and Vancouver.
Unions representing Air France cabin crews called off a strike planned to begin Sunday and will return to negotiations, a company spokeswoman said.
Union representatives could not be reached for comment Monday night. The Sud AÚrien union last week called for crews on short- and medium-distance flights to strike in protest to what it said were management's efforts to undermine their contracts. The union called the job action "essentially a strike for jobs and working conditions."
The Italian carrier Alitalia canceled or delayed flights across the country because of a four-hour strike by pilots, flight attendants and baggage handlers, news agencies reported.
TAP Portugal pilots are planning to walk off the job on Friday through March 31, according to the airline.
Lufthansa pilots went on strike last month, stranding thousands of passengers, in protest to the move of cockpit jobs to foreign subsidiaries where pilots earn less. The pilots agreed to halt the action after a judge intervened.
The Cockpit Association union, which represents about 4,500 pilots at Lufthansa and its subsidiaries, said Monday that negotiations with management had not advanced, and that pilots at Lufthansa, Lufthansa Cargo and Germanwings were planning to strike for four days beginning April 13.
Salaries for British Airways cabin crews are nearly double the salaries of rivals, according to the Civil Aviation Authority, the aviation regulator in Britain. The airline argues that the savings are necessary if it is to remain competitive.
Tony Woodley, Unite's joint general secretary, said Monday that the union was ready for talks at any time before the next strike, slated for Saturday, but that the airline had not responded.
"BA needs to wake up and understand that a dispute like this can only be resolved through negotiations and agreement," Woodley said, adding that the company's willingness to lose money "can only lead to suspicions that there is another, union-busting, agenda at work here."