Air Traffic Controllers Have Brought Spain to an Emergency State

Spanish air traffic controllers’ strike forced the government to declare a state of emergency. Now all the airspace of Spain closed for flights. It’s controlled by the Defense Ministry. The main local carrier, company “Iberia”, canceled all its flights until Sunday morning. Tens of thousands of passengers are hostages of the situation.

Spanish air traffic controllers refused to work under the new law of the government. They don’t like the hard mode of work. The strike of airport workers is a very serious thing. Without them, as without the pilots, passenger airplanes don’t fly. And though now the airspace over Spain is controlled by the military, fully men in uniforms can’t replace the managers of civil aviation. Most of the mass strike passengers are affected. Those who did not depart from the Spanish airport on the eve had to spend the night at the terminal waiting for their flights. People were given food and drinks. In Madrid subway worked around-the-clock. This is for those who were tired of sitting at the airport and wanted to return home.

“We have been sticking here since 8 am, but there are also those who had been here all night. They slept on the floor. I do not know how all this can end. Passengers continued to arrive, and the place is just physically not enough “- said one of the passengers.

Controllers went on strike just in those days, when many Spaniards were going to rest in other countries – It is holidays on 6 and 8 December in Spain. But now the weekend is hopelessly flawed. Foreigners also suffer. There are also quite a lot of them in Spanish airports.

“I’m shocked. I do not know if I can get home tonight in Copenhagen “, – says a passenger.

“We absolutely do not know what to do. Planes don’t fly, we cannot get out of here. No one can explain us what is happening “- complained another passenger.

It is unclear when the strike will end. The Spanish government and the managers don’t hurry to go to meet each other. And Spain’s largest airline “Iberia” has officially canceled all flights until Sunday 8 am.

Also, all their Sunday flights to Spain abolished the airlines Air France, KLM, Thai Airways, EasyJet, Ryanair. Because of the irregular Spanish air traffic controllers strike disrupted the work of Germany’s largest airport in Frankfurt am Main. There are 14 flights delayed.

Airspace over Spain is fully open, the Associated Press reports citing government. At the same time, the minister of infrastructure Jose Blanco added that the normalization of air traffic is expected only within 24-48 hours.

Earlier this afternoon air communication with Spain was completely stopped due to an undeclared strike by air traffic controllers, most of which didn’t come to work, citing poor health. Action is directed against the accepted before the government measures to reduce public spending in the air transport sector.

In Spain a state of emergency is announced today, all air traffic controllers are required to assume responsibilities, otherwise they will face criminal penalties.

In connection with the prohibition of flights over Spain, a number of airlines canceled their flights to the country. Among them there are Iberia, Air France, KLM, Thai Airways, EasyJet, Ryanair, Air Europa. Departures of their flights are expecting over 250 thousand passengers.

Previously, the Office of Airports and Air Navigation Spain (AENA) reported that the country’s airspace will be closed at least until 21:00 MSK, but after that it became known that some air traffic controllers returned to their posts.