Strike by KLM technicians ends, flights delayed

An 18-hour strike by up to 200 technicians ended yesterday after disrupting KLM Royal Dutch Airlines' flight schedule and stranding 4,500 passengers at Schiphol airport, KLM said.

Further flight delays were expected through the day, the airline added. "The strike is over and we will do our best to get flights back to normal by the end of the day," a KLM spokesman said.

The strike, which began at 1600 GMT on Friday and was lifted at 1030 GMT yesterday, delayed all intercontinental wide-bodied flights on the busiest weekend of the year for the airport, stranding 4,500 passengers, KLM said.

The workers, who had demanded a more than 40 per cent pay rise, dropped the strike after KLM management and labour unions agreed to conduct a survey of technicians at other airlines to see if KLM workers were underpaid.

"We are going back to work. The strike is over," NLTV board member Ron Scherft told Reuters. "We are cautiously happy." The workers belong to an unofficial association of aircraft technicians called NVLT.

The strike crippled KLM's intercontinental fleet, as planes were not allowed to depart without being signed off as safe by the technicians. KLM said 13 flights were affected.

Some passengers, connecting from flights from Britain, were stranded at the airport for more than 24 hours and not told when they would be allowed to continue on to Toronto.

"It's total mayhem and no one can tell us anything," said Phil John, from Caerau, Wales, whose original connecting flight arrived at Schiphol at 1100 GMT on Friday, but was caught up in the delay after suffering a mechanical fault.

All seven unions representing KLM employees condemned the action, saying that this weekend was not the right time for the protest and that the demands of the NVTL were outrageous.

"They may have some legitimate concern about their salaries...but they should not be doing this on a weekend," said Wouter de Jong, spokesman for CNV union, which represents many of the groundworkers at Schiphol.

"They've compared their salaries with their colleagues at Northwest Airlines in the United States, where salaries are higher, and asked for raises of between 40 and 130 per cent," De Jong told Reuters. "We expect passengers to take out their anger on our members."

Meanwhile, KLM said yesterday it expected full year operating income to be "well below" last year's level as the U.S.-led global slowdown hit the airline industry harder in the past quarter.

"Effects of the economic downturn have become pronounced during this (first) quarter. Due to the uncertainty regarding both the full impact of the downturn on the airline industry as well as the timing of economic recovery, we take a cautious stance on our forecast," KLM said in a statement. Up to now, the group had not given a full year forecast.

On Wednesday, KLM said it expected its 2001-02 operating profit to be "well below" the 277 million euros ($241.9 million) it reported in the year ago period.

The Dutch flag carrier said net profit had fallen to 19 million euros in the first quarter of the 2001-02 financial year from 43 million in the year-ago period. Operating profits decreased to 23 million euros from 100 million.

Seven analysts polled by Reuters forecast the Dutch airline would report an operating profit of 29-65 million euros, with consensus at 47 million in the three months to the end of June.

KLM warned earlier this month that first quarter operating profits would be substantially below those posted in the same period of 2000-01. Its warning follows others, in an industry suffering from high prices, a slowdown in economic growth and fierce competition.

Last month, Germany's Lufthansa, one of Europe's top three airlines, cut its operating profit forecast for 2001 by 25-30 per cent due to the costs of a pay dispute and a weakening economy.

KLM's main negative was its yield, which fell for the first time in seven quarters, dipping by one percent. Traffic actually rose one per cent year-on-year.

"Its passenger and cargo operations met much more difficult markets than we had expected. We had expected the yield to rise by one per cent...It's poor, although we don't think KLM is sticking out within a weak airline sector," said Corne Zandbergen, analyst at Fortis Bank.