Lebanon's only international airport ground to a halt on Friday as air traffic controllers began a 24-hour strike to demand the government pay overtime wages and improve work conditions, airport officials said.
The strike will prevent 52 flights from landing and another 52 taking off at Beirut airport, delaying thousands of passengers and affecting 30 Arab and foreign airlines including flag-carrier Middle East Airlines (MEA), they said.
"Fortunately, it's low season but still passengers, employees and carriers will be affected, especially MEA, and we can't do anything about it," Salim Nasreddine, head of the airport's fleets department.
The airport's 48 controllers say they have not been compensated for overtime hours since 2001 and their demands for better working conditions have been repeatedly overlooked by the government and airport management.
"We work for 240 hours every month including weekends and holidays which far exceeds the official work hour limit of 128 hours per month. We have been promised an answer to our demands for five years now with nothing in sight," said Neamtallah Tannouri, one of the controllers on strike.
"We have nothing to lose. We prefer to suspend activity than risk airport safety when a controller is too tired or too frustrated to work. And we plan an open-ended strike if nothing else works," he said.
On Thursday, MP Mohamed Qabbani who is mediating talks between the controllers and the government failed to convince controllers to delay their strike.
"We will examine the controllers grievances and find a solution from legal texts such that they get the rights they deserve," Kabbani, head of parliaments' Public Works and Transport committee, told reporters.