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French strike hits Europe flights
PARIS, France -- European travellers have faced a day of misery as hundreds of flights were cancelled across the continent as French air traffic controllers joined in a nationwide strike by civil servants. The 32-hour strike is set to continue until 0530 GMT on Wednesday. Europe's biggest carrier, British Airways, cancelled 128 flights to and from France and Germany's Lufthansa cancelled 50 flights between France and Germany. Flights from Amsterdam's Schiphol airport were diverted to avoid French airspace and some flights out of Geneva to Britain were delayed. Italian carrier Alitalia said three out of four of its daily 90 flights between France and Italy were canceled. Hungary's national airline, Malev, was forced to cancel 10 flights into or out of Paris during of the strike, a company spokeswoman told Associated Press. Scandinavian Airlines canceled 27 flights linking Paris and the French Riviera town of Nice to Oslo, Norway; Copenhagen, Denmark and Stockholm, Sweden. AENA, Spain's national aviation authority, said about 130 flights between Spain and France were canceled and use of French airspace by flights that did land in France was hindered. At Frankfurt airport, the busiest in continental Europe, the walkout caused the cancellation of 72 flights, airport spokesman Robert Payne said. At Paris' two airports only about one in five scheduled flights were expected to take off or land during Tuesday, affecting services in France and elsewhere in Europe. "It is very quiet here. Most passengers changed their plans," a spokeswoman for Charles de Gaulle airport told Reuters. Long-haul flights to destinations such as the U.S., Asia and Africa were less affected, the Paris airports authority said. Thousands march in ParisMeanwhile, French postal workers, bus and subway drivers, hospital workers, and electricity and telephone utility staff were also on strike over pay, retirement benefits and the French government's privatisation plans. Thousands of French public workers have marched through Paris in protest against planned right-wing economic reforms.
Police said 30,000 marchers filed through Paris's Left Bank in protest at Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin's plans for more state firm sell-offs and fears that a planned overhaul of France's costly pension system could hit civil servants' perks. Trade union organisers put the protest turnout at 60,000. Dressed in an old stationmaster's uniform, retired rail worker Guy l'Hotelier said a spate of accidents on Britain's privatised railways showed France's SNCF railways -- one possible sell-off target -- was better left in public hands. "Just look what has happened in Britain. Privatisations are dangerous," said the 55-year-old. The travel chaos included jams on platforms in many Paris subway stations in morning rush hour. Rail commuters coming into Gare du Nord in Paris had to walk along the tracks for the last 250 metres as staff action caused a backlog of trains. Commuters in the cities of Toulouse, Bordeaux and Marseille also faced sharp service cutbacks in buses and subways. The powerful Communist-aligned CGT union helped organise the strike, which was expected to include demonstrations in many cities across the country. On Monday, striking truckers blockaded dozens of highways in a protest over pay. The roadblocks came down by the end of the day as police stepped in to keep traffic running smoothly. The strikes are the biggest labour challenge yet for the five-month-old government of centre-right Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin, which has made a priority of selling off the state's stake in many French companies to raise cash. Reuters contributed to this report.
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