Air strikes threaten travel chaos

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Travellers face further chaos due to proposed industrial action by French air traffic controllers after a strike by pilots at Germany's Lufthansa airline has already seen hundreds of flights cancelled - with another strike threatened by British Airways staff.

Frantic bids to prevent a "deeply damaging" strike by BA cabin crew are being made. Unite and BA managers are to hold talks just hours after the union announced another massive vote for industrial action in a row over jobs and working conditions.

Unite will hold internal meetings in the next few days before deciding whether to set strike dates, which would hit flights in the busy run-up to Easter.

The four-day strike by French controllers, set for Tuesday, should hit travel across Europe and disrupt travel at Paris' Charles de Gaulle and Orly airports. The French civil aviation authority DGAC said it could not estimate to what extent the strike could affect air traffic.

Last month, a similar strike led to cancellation of half of flights at Orly and 15% of flights at Charles de Gaulle as well as travel disruption in other French airports.

Copyright © Press Association 2010

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