Catherwood LibraryILR School

For the third time in the past two years, air traffic controllers in France walked out yesterday over proposals to form a consolidated air traffic authority for the European Union?s fifteen member states. They were joined for the first time by controllers in fellow member states Greece, Portugal, Italy and Hungary, shutting down over 7,700 flights and affecting tens of thousands of passengers. While air traffic controllers? unions claim that the move to a centralized authority will cause layoffs and privatization that will decrease safety, the European Commission insists that the consolidation is meant only to bring order to Europe?s fragmented airways and is not a prelude to privatization.