The government remained locked in negotiations with air traffic controllers on Tuesday, while calm prevailed at Brazil's busiest airport despite fear of another strike.
At Sao Paulo's Congonhas metropolitan airport, travelers rushed to catch flights, while travel agents said they feared a repeat of Friday's halt of all takeoffs at the country's 67 commercial airports for nearly five hours.
"We are worried that another strike could happen on Easter," said a ticket agent for TAM Linhas Aereas SA, Brazil's biggest airline, who asked not to be identified because she was not authorized to speak to the media. "God and flight controllers permitting, we will have no problem on Easter. If not it will be total chaos. It will be hell, just like last Friday."
Friday's strike ended only after the government agreed to controllers' demands for a bonus, review of the promotions system and change in the military status of some controllers to civilian.
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has called the strikers "irresponsible" and appeared to back off a key demand that air traffic controllers be removed from the military's jurisdiction. His reversal apparently was due to discontent in the military over the president's appearing to condone the controllers' violation of orders.
The military prosecutor's office also has asked the Air Force to investigate whether its military hierarchy was broken and if middle- and low-level controllers were insubordinate - leaving open the possibility that some of the strikers could be imprisoned.
"We want to negotiate with all parties, but we will not do this with a knife at the throat," Planning Minister Paulo Bernardo said Tuesday following a meeting with representatives of the striking controllers. "It is very difficult to negotiate with constant threats ... of turning Easter into an inferno."
But in a statement issued earlier, the Brazilian Association of Air Traffic Controllers said, "there is no intention to paralyze work during Easter Week."
Still, many travelers were taking no chances.
"Ticket sales for Easter were already weak because of the crisis," said Carlos Alberto Amorim, vice president of the Brazilian Association of Travel Agencies. "They got worse after Friday."
Because of the country's travel woes, Amorim said tour operators have chalked up some 20 million reals (US$10 million; euro7.5 million) in losses from cancellations and lost bookings.
Many travelers who planned to fly over the weekend are now taking buses, he added.
Brazil's travel headaches began last year when Brazil's one-time flagship airline Varig nearly disintegrated under crushing debt, causing mass cancellations in Brazil and abroad.
In March, hundreds of flights from major airports were delayed after a failure in air traffic control in Brazil's heavily populated southern and central areas.
The slowdowns by controllers protesting working conditions followed the Sept. 29 crash between a Gol airlines Boeing 737 and a Embraer Legacy executive jet that killed 154 people, the deadliest air accident in Brazil's history.
"Today, it was cinch," said architect Rodrigo Araujo dos Santos, 37, moments after checking in for a TAM flight to Rio de Janeiro. "I was here last Friday hoping to get on a plane to Rio, but when I saw the chaos and the crowds, I turned around and left."
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