Flight chaos as Spanish pilots strike

Hundreds of flights have been cancelled

Air passengers in Spain have been experiencing a day of disruption as pilots from the airline Iberia stage a 24-hour strike over a pay claim.

The pilots' union, Sepla, is demanding a pay increase 3% above inflation, and compensation for a pay freeze imposed in 1995.

More than a quarter of the airline's 1,000 scheduled domestic and international flights have been cancelled.

Services to European destinations were hardest hit, with 37% of flights cancelled.

Normally busy airports have been left deserted

The strikes are set to continue every Tuesday in June and July, and every Monday in August - a total of 10 days.

The action is expected to cause major disruption for travellers to Europe's second most popular tourist destination.

The BBC's Flora Botsford in Madrid says there is little public sympathy in Spain for Iberia pilots, who year after year create havoc in Spain's tourist industry by cancelling flights in the middle of the holiday season.

Economy Minister Rodrigo Rato said the government would not get involved in a dispute at a private company, but he said he disapproved of "using customers as hostages".

At Heathrow Airport in London, 10 of the 14 daily Iberia flights to Madrid were cancelled, along with six out of eight flights to Barcelona.

The action will also hit the company hard. Iberia's Chief Executive, Angel Mullor, said in an interview published on Sunday that the strikes would reduce profit by billions of pesetas.

Shares hit

Long-term bookings could also be hit by the strikes. After industrial action in March 1999, it took eight months for reservations to get back to normal. Iberia bosses also have their shareholders to consider, including part owners British Airways and American Airlines.

The company was launched on the stock exchange in April, and on Monday shares fell to their lowest rate since privatisation.

The company and unions held nearly 12 hours of talks on Monday, in a bid to settle the dispute, but the discussions ended in acrimony.

Iberia accused the pilots of making unrealistic demands without offering anything in return. Bosses said meeting the pay claim would plunge the company into an operating loss.

But a Sepla spokeswoman said union negotiators were angry that Iberia's chief executive did not attend the meeting.

An Iberia pilot earns an average of around $140,000 (£100,000) a year. The figure is slightly lower than comparable airlines such as Air France, but correspondents say in Spain it is seen as more than generous.

Spain's Finance Minister, Rodrigo Rato, has asked pilots not to use consumers as hostages in their industrial dispute, which he said could affect Spain's standing as the primary tourist power in Europe and the second in the world.