Air traffic controllers went on strike in five European countries yesterday in what was widely viewed as a test of the ability of French trade unions to block economic liberalisation and European integration.
Disruption was most severe in France, where the strike started at 6 a.m. and was to continue until 11 p.m.
Controllers in Greece, Portugal, Hungary and Italy stopped work for one to five hours.
Some 90 per cent of domestic and European flights to and from France were cancelled, but most long-haul flights were maintained. The Orly and Charles-de-Gaulle-Roissy airports outside Paris were empty, because most passengers heard radio and television reports about the strike and stayed home. Foreign tourists who were not informed complained that airlines did nothing to help them.
The strike was called by 13 unions belonging to ATEUC (Air Traffic European Union Coordination).
But for three years, the French communist union CGT has been the most strident opponent of the European Commission's attempts to create a "single sky". While land frontiers have virtually vanished in continental Europe, each member-state maintains sovereignty over its own airspace.
Aircraft must often change altitude when they cross borders, and uncoordinated military use of national airspace forces civilian airliners to make long detours.
The Commission wants to create a "single sky committee" in Brussels to harmonise regulations, but has promised not to change the status of controllers in member countries.
The strike seemed to anger other Europeans far more than it worried the French, who are accustomed to semi-permanent industrial action.
The chairman of the German airline Lufthansa, Mr Jürgen Weber, called the strike "downright absurd", saying the controllers were protesting "against open European skies . . . and in favour of maintaining fragmented structures."
Hundreds of holidaymakers were stranded in Athens airport, where 90 of 450 flights were cancelled.
British Airways cancelled 122 of 126 flights to or through France, as well as 38 other flights to the continent, but Heathrow airport functioned almost normally. At Frankfurt airport, 67 out of 1,250 flights were cancelled.
The strike had a knock-on effect in countries where personnel worked normally. A spokeswoman at Schiphol airport in Amsterdam said that delays would build up after several dozen flights were cancelled, including 20 KLM services to France.
Airlines fear the economic effect of industrial action at a time when all are suffering from decreased international travel since September 11th. Air France shares dropped 2.3 per cent yesterday, and BA shares fell 3.4 per cent.
French unions claim the EU proposals jeopardise safety by introducing the profit motive to air traffic control.
"It is our duty to denounce the ideological drift that aims to apply classic rules of competition to airspace," said a joint statement by French controllers. "The plan deprives states of sovereignty over their airspace by giving the single sky committee full power to reattribute blocks of airspace to providers according to economic criteria."
Although the new right-wing French government is almost certain to clash with trade unions on other issues, they apparently agree about airspace.
French officials often cite British rail catastrophes as an example of what happens when public safety is entrusted to the private sector.
The French Transport Minister, Mr Gilles de Robien, said France has strong reservations about the EU plan. "We're asking to be convinced that the proposed system has added value," he said.
The strike was prompted by a meeting of transport ministers in Brussels on Monday and Tuesday, but was staged after the meeting to link it to a pre-EU summit general strike in Spain today.
A European official told the Libération newspaper that French controllers are "a privileged caste" under the control of "the most reactionary and sectarian part of the CGT".
Brussels has removed the words "privatisation" and "liberalisation" from draft texts, which would not take effect until 2004.
"The strike has no real justification," Mr Gilles Gantelet, the spokesman for the EU Transport Commissioner, Ms Loyola de Palacio, told Le Figaro newspaper.
"Our proposals are not yet at the decision stage and are still under discussion by the Council of Ministers. We find it difficult to understand the motives."