Paris:
French air traffic controllers began a five-day strike on Tuesday, leaving thousands of travellers stranded across the country the day after a walkout by Lufthansa pilots had forced the cancellation of hundreds of flights in neighbouring Germany.
France's civil aviation authority ordered airlines to cancel 25 percent of their flights at Charles de Gaulle Airport, the main international airport serving Paris, and 50 percent of flights at Orly, which serves mainly domestic and European destinations. Some smaller provincial French airports were closed.
Air France KLM, which maintains its largest hub at Charles de Gaulle, said that it expected to operate all of its intercontinental flights for the duration of the French strike, which was expected to continue until Saturday.
Short- and medium-haul flights, however, were severely disrupted Tuesday, and significant cancellations and delays were anticipated for Wednesday as well.
The French controllers are protesting European Union plans to integrate air traffic control systems under an initiative called the Single European Sky. Their unions fear the changes will result in job cuts and the loss of special civil servant benefits.
The main pilots union of Lufthansa agreed late Monday to suspend until March 9 what had been expected to be a four-day walkout. The Cockpit Association union, which represents about 4,500 pilots, and the airline's management agreed to return to the bargaining table to discuss pilots' concerns that the carrier may seek to employ lower-paid pilots from foreign subsidiaries at its main German units, including Lufthansa Cargo and Germanwings, a no-frills carrier.
While Lufthansa's pilots were back at work on Tuesday, the airline said its flights would remain disrupted for the next several days until aircraft and personnel were able to support regular schedules.
Thomas Jachnow, a Lufthansa spokesman, said the airline had begun restoring service on its main domestic and European routes Tuesday and had resumed long-haul service from Frankfurt to Singapore and Sao Paolo. The airline expected to add a further 400 flights on Wednesday, and return to a full schedule of 1,800 flights a day by Friday.
Elsewhere, the threat of more travel disruption loomed.
In Britain, the union representing more than 12,000 British Airways cabin crew members voted Monday to strike over changes introduced late last year to employees' contracts and a proposed two-year pay freeze. The union, Unite, did not set a date for a walkout, though it vowed not to strike over the Easter vacation period.
Air traffic controllers in Greece planned a 24-hour strike on Wednesday to protest planned government budget cuts - the second such strike in less than a month there. Athens International Airport warned on its Web site that all flights into and out of the Greek capital would be canceled as of midnight.