French air traffic controllers went on strike today just as pilots at German flagship carrier Lufthansa agreed to suspend a strike until next month.
The Lufthansa breakthrough came as British Airways faced up to the prospect of its first strike in more than a decade after the company’s 12,000 cabin crew voted for a walkout in a dispute over staffing levels.
British Airways wants three-quarters of its crew to accept a pay freeze this year, along with other cost-cutting measures.
This is the union's second attempt at industrial action after a court forced the workers to abandon plans for a 12-day strike over Christmas that would have affected a million travellers.
The pilots' strike at Lufthansa, which was meant to last until Thursday, caused about 900 flights to be cancelled yesterday, causing travel chaos and leaving thousands of travellers around the world stranded.
Workers fear that the airline, which aims to cut €1 billion of costs by 2011, wants to expand the foreign units while shrinking "Lufthansa-Classic" because pilots and cabin crew make less money outside of Germany.
In a hastily arranged court hearing, Lufthansa and pilots' union Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) yesterday agreed to try to work out their differences after the airline had asked the court to help it halt the strike.
Cabin crew union UFO had jumped on the bandwagon, threatening a warning strike if Lufthansa failed to engage in wage negotiations.
In France, airlines had to cancel half of the short- and medium-haul flights at Paris's Orly airport and a quarter of such flights nixed at the international Charles de Gaulle airport, as the French workers went on strike.
The French unions have called for a five-day strike to protest against plans to modernise air traffic, signed by Germany, Belgium, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Switzerland. The unions fear the reforms will lead to layoffs.