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From CNN News - World
Spain flights cut as pilots strike
Monday, July 10, 2006 Posted: 1804 GMT (0204 HKT)
Passengers sleep at Madrid's Barajas airport after Iberia's pilots went on strike.
MADRID, Spain (Reuters) -- Pilots at Iberia started a seven-day strike on Monday against the Spanish carrier's plan to create a budget offshoot, forcing the airline to scrap a quarter of its flights.
Pilots' union SEPLA wants guarantees that Iberia's plans to launch a low-cost airline, provisionally called Catair, will not lead to job losses.
At the start of the peak summer holiday season and as a heatwave hit Spain, flustered tourists at Madrid's Barajas airport tried to reschedule journeys after the airline cancelled 240 flights on Monday. The strike will cost Iberia some 35 million euros ($44.7 million) if its near-2,000 pilots take part, the airline has said.
Iberia said it would send SEPLA a written offer later on Monday guaranteeing the job of every pilot employed by the airline and the union said a meeting with the company was scheduled for 6.30 p.m. (1630 GMT) but might be postponed.
The strike started at midnight Sunday (2200 GMT) after last-ditch talks failed to persuade pilots their jobs were not in danger.Flights cancelled on Monday -- detailed on Iberia's Web site www.iberia.com -- mainly served destinations within Spain. Iberia said it was still operating all flights to the Canary and Balearic islands, Africa, the Middle East, most of its long-haul destinations and about half its destinations within Spain and the rest of Europe. Iberia was offering to return money for cancelled flights.
The airline said on Sunday it had offered job guarantees. It said a demand by pilots that their salaries be guaranteed until the age of 65 -- using the airline's planes as collateral -- was an "aberration."
Spain flights cut as pilots strike
Monday, July 10, 2006 Posted: 1804 GMT (0204 HKT)
MADRID, Spain (Reuters) -- Pilots at Iberia started a seven-day strike on Monday against the Spanish carrier's plan to create a budget offshoot, forcing the airline to scrap a quarter of its flights.
Pilots' union SEPLA wants guarantees that Iberia's plans to launch a low-cost airline, provisionally called Catair, will not lead to job losses.
At the start of the peak summer holiday season and as a heatwave hit Spain, flustered tourists at Madrid's Barajas airport tried to reschedule journeys after the airline cancelled 240 flights on Monday. The strike will cost Iberia some 35 million euros ($44.7 million) if its near-2,000 pilots take part, the airline has said.
Iberia said it would send SEPLA a written offer later on Monday guaranteeing the job of every pilot employed by the airline and the union said a meeting with the company was scheduled for 6.30 p.m. (1630 GMT) but might be postponed.
The strike started at midnight Sunday (2200 GMT) after last-ditch talks failed to persuade pilots their jobs were not in danger.Flights cancelled on Monday -- detailed on Iberia's Web site www.iberia.com -- mainly served destinations within Spain. Iberia said it was still operating all flights to the Canary and Balearic islands, Africa, the Middle East, most of its long-haul destinations and about half its destinations within Spain and the rest of Europe. Iberia was offering to return money for cancelled flights.
The airline said on Sunday it had offered job guarantees. It said a demand by pilots that their salaries be guaranteed until the age of 65 -- using the airline's planes as collateral -- was an "aberration."
