Britons will be stranded for a week in f lights chaos

THOUSANDS of British air passengers were stranded abroad last night as the chaos caused by striking French air traffic controllers worsened.

Many were forced to sleep on the floors of airports in Mediterranean resorts as they awaited news of rescheduled flights. Some face being stranded for a week.

Amid ‘nightmare’ scenes at holiday destinations in Spain and Portugal, flights were cancelled with no warning in the early hours of the morning, leaving parents to struggle with crying children as they awaited news.

Frustrated travellers complained of a lack of information from airline staff. Even when staff were able to provide details of a rescheduled flight, they admitted there was no guarantee that it would not also fall victim to the strike.

With the walkout due to last until Monday, many travellers were facing

‘Strike should be

made illegal’

the prospect of waiting until next week to be flown home, prompting angry scenes at some airports.

Airlines including Ryanair, easyJet and British Airways were forced to book thousands of emergency hotel rooms for stranded passengers.

On the second day of the walk-out, airline bosses accused the militants of holding them to ransom and called for staff from neighbouring countries to take over French airspace.

The strike is over job cuts as part of an EU plan for a ‘single European sky’. Problems intensified yesterday after air traffic controllers in Belgium also walked out.

Airlines have been ordered to ground up to a quarter of flights that would normally use French airspace.

EasyJet, which has cancelled 300 flights over two days, said it had booked 2,800 hotel rooms to deal with passengers unable to fly home. Ryanair cancelled around 250 flights for the second day in a row. British Airways cancelled 30 flights.

Kenny Jacobs of Ryanair, said EU governments needed to get tough on French air traffic controllers to stop them ‘holding people to ransom’ with their annual walk-outs.

‘It’s a disgrace,’ he said. ‘The French need to sort this out. Strike action by air traffic controllers should be made illegal. And if they do go on strike, neighbouring EU countries should be able to operate the airspace over France to keep planes flying.’

An easyJet spokesman said: ‘We are advising passengers on cancelled flights to either claim a refund or re-book after the strike has finished.’

Among those stranded is Sophia Ali, 31, from London, who had been in Ibiza for a friend’s wedding when her flight home was cancelled.

‘The scenes at the airport were horrendous,’ she said. ‘Some people were swearing and kicking off. As soon as the flight was cancelled the internet went down, so you couldn’t get information.’

Queues at UK airports were less severe than on Tuesday because airlines had ‘pre-cancelled’ most of the affected outbound flights and alerted passengers in advance.

Edinburgh Airport reported four Ryanair cancellations to and from Spain yesterday. A spokesman said: ‘It seems there are more delays than cancellations.’

A spokesman for Prestwick said there had been no cancellations, while Glasgow Airport had ten cancellations: four Ryanair services to Spain, and four easyJet and two BA flights to and from London Gatwick

There were also delays ranging from a few minutes to almost three hours.

Aberdeen Airport also saw a number of cancellations. A spokesman said: ‘There were four flights affected. They were two easyJet flights to Gatwick and two to Luton. We are anticipating a full schedule today.’