THE second air-traffic control strike of the week takes place today, potentially affecting around 5,200 flights to and from airports in Spain.
Monday's strike was said to have created barely a ripple in Spanish terminals, with no cancellations and only negligible delays of less than half an hour, despite hotels in the Canary Islands setting aside 1,300 beds for package tourists who might find their trips called off.
Palma de Mallorca airport was expecting chaos, but it was mostly business as usual.
And only a handful of delays, of around 20 to 30 minutes, were reported from Alicante airport.
Conflicting information has come from UK tabloids, which claimed passengers travelling to and from Girona (Costa Brava) airport to London-Stansted were left stranded up to 14 hours, with some arriving at the latter at 08.00hrs for a 09.30hrs flight and being told they would not be taking off until 23.30hrs.
But these long waits related to one low-cost airline only, which said it had suffered 'technical problems' and did not mention the Spanish air-traffic control strike.
Other budget airlines have told customers to keep a close eye on their websites and pledged to avoid cancellations where possible, but warn of possible delays today.
Spain's government has obliged air-traffic controllers to run 'minimum services', which would mean seven in 10 flights leaving and arriving at the normal times, but four hours each day from every airport in the country will see the majority of control tower staff downing tools, which could effectively close the country's air-space during those times.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com