Summary More than 90% of Chile’s 3,000 civil aviation workers strike, calling for better retirement benefits
SANTIAGO (AFP) - Airport workers staged a 24-hour strike Tuesday in Chile, grounding flights across the country and disrupting travel plans for an estimated 70,000 passengers.
"The situation at the airports is calm despite (the strike), which affects 100 percent of our airports, where departure operations have been cancelled," said the director general of the civil aviation authority, Maximiliano Larraechea.
He told journalists that airports would only handle arriving flights and emergency air traffic.
More than 90 percent of the country s 3,000 civil aviation workers joined the strike, calling for better retirement benefits.
The shutdown began at midnight and had already grounded an estimated 15,000 passengers by Tuesday morning, officials said. It was expected to affect a total of 70,000 passengers by the end of the day.
The main airlines operating in the South American country, including LATAM, Air France and Sky Airlines, had contacted affected clients to reschedule their departures free of charge.
