Paris:
Flights across Europe were disrupted on Tuesday after industrial action affected German airline Lufthansa and French air traffic controllers began a four-day strike.
In France the civil aviation agency has ordered airlines to cut back half of the flights in and out of Paris' Orly airport and one in four at Charles de Gaulle amid staffing shortages caused by the walkout.
Five unions of air traffic controllers called the four-day strike to protest conditions of plans to integrate European air traffic control. Workers fear losses of jobs and civil servant benefits.
The strike beginning came amid a seasonal school holiday in France. Union leaders hoped to pressure President Nicolas Sarkozy's governing conservatives ahead of regional elections next month.
Disgruntled would-be passengers at Orly airport in Paris complained about hundreds of cancelled or delayed flights.
Alain Wolff from Brest in France said he would probably return home rather than risk having to spend the night in the airport, while Abdallah Benjemaa from Tunis, Tunisia said he felt he was not receiving enough information from the airlines about flight alternatives.
At German airline Lufthansa on Tuesday thousands of pilots went back to work after a strike was suspended, but the carrier warned that it won't return to its normal schedule until Friday.
Lufthansa spokesman Klaus Walter said "it will take some time until the worldwide Lufthansa network will function as it did before the strike."
Some four thousand Lufthansa pilots went on strike on Monday over their concerns that cheaper crews from Lufthansa's smaller airlines in other countries could eventually replace them.
Some 10-thousand Lufthansa and Germanwings passengers were affected by the strike.
The two sides agreed to suspend the walkout until 9 March and resume talks. Pilots for Lufthansa Cargo and the low-budget subsidiary, Germanwings, had also taken part.
In France the civil aviation agency has ordered airlines to cut back half of the flights in and out of Paris' Orly airport and one in four at Charles de Gaulle amid staffing shortages caused by the walkout.
Five unions of air traffic controllers called the four-day strike to protest conditions of plans to integrate European air traffic control. Workers fear losses of jobs and civil servant benefits.
The strike beginning came amid a seasonal school holiday in France. Union leaders hoped to pressure President Nicolas Sarkozy's governing conservatives ahead of regional elections next month.
Disgruntled would-be passengers at Orly airport in Paris complained about hundreds of cancelled or delayed flights.
Alain Wolff from Brest in France said he would probably return home rather than risk having to spend the night in the airport, while Abdallah Benjemaa from Tunis, Tunisia said he felt he was not receiving enough information from the airlines about flight alternatives.
At German airline Lufthansa on Tuesday thousands of pilots went back to work after a strike was suspended, but the carrier warned that it won't return to its normal schedule until Friday.
Lufthansa spokesman Klaus Walter said "it will take some time until the worldwide Lufthansa network will function as it did before the strike."
Some four thousand Lufthansa pilots went on strike on Monday over their concerns that cheaper crews from Lufthansa's smaller airlines in other countries could eventually replace them.
Some 10-thousand Lufthansa and Germanwings passengers were affected by the strike.
The two sides agreed to suspend the walkout until 9 March and resume talks. Pilots for Lufthansa Cargo and the low-budget subsidiary, Germanwings, had also taken part.
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