Protesting Greek Airline Workers Walk Onto Runway
ATHENS, Greece --
Hundreds of protesting Olympic Airlines workers walked onto the main runway of Athens International Airport Tuesday to protest plans to sell the troubled state-owned airline.
The employees, including pilots, air stewards, technicians and support staff, stopped planes from taking off or landing there, but the airport said flights were not disrupted as planes were diverted to a second runway.
"There is no impact on the flights, all are using the western runway," airport spokeswoman Marina Papageorgiou said.
The protest lasted for about half an hour.
The government says OA has accumulated total losses of around 2.7 billion euros ($3.85 billion). The European Union last week approved a government plan to privatize the Greek carrier next year.
Olympic's 8,100 staff are not guaranteed jobs when the airline is sold, but about 4,600 salaried employees will be offered public sector jobs as part of a compensation package worth 1.2 billion euros ($1.74 billion).
Employees' unions have said they have no plans to strike but will carry out frequent protests.
Tuesday's demonstration at the airport is the second such action in a week. Last Thursday, employees blocked a taxiway near the main runway but did not disrupt flights.
