The Minister of Civil Aviation, Lotfy Mostafa Kamal, has reached a preliminary agreement with air traffic controllers, and engineers from the Egypt National Air Navigation Company and the Cairo International Airport Company, prompting workers to suspend their strike and return to work.
Cairo International Airport resumed operation of the baggage x-ray machines and metal detectors at the airport entrance after five hours of closure, late on Wednesday. Authorities transferred incoming flights to Sharm el-Sheikh, Borg al-Arab and Alexandria airports, instead of Cairo, after the air traffic control tower staff announced a strike, resulting in the overcrowding of passengers.
A security source said that the workers took advantage of the critical nature of their responsibilities in order to press officials to meet their demands.
The same source added that workers who staged a strike had distorted the image of the airport before the whole world, in addition to causing the loss of millions of pounds for the airlines and the airport itself.
The corridors of the Cairo International Airport, a few hours ago, were the scene of severe congestion for passengers, caused by the delay in the taking-off and landing of aircraft.
This prompted an operating room official to accuse the air traffic controllers of intentionally slowing down after the circulation of news that the allowances allocated for them have been cancelled.
Performance allowances of LE3000 were allocated to air traffic controllers a few days ago.
Besides financial demands, air traffic controllers have been protesting what they deem corrupt policies adopted by the airport administration. Earlier in June, Cairo International Airport air traffic controllers went on strike in response to the Civil Aviation Ministry's reported intent to reduce their salaries after hiring a new batch of traffic control officers with higher salaries.
Translated from the Arabic Edition
