Air traffic
controllers at Senegal’s main airports have ended their strike after shutting
it down for most of the day over demands for more training and transportation
stipends, media report said on Saturday.
The report noted that the
government had said the new 680-million-dollar airport, which was inaugurated
on Dec. 7, would help to make Senegal a transport hub in West Africa and boost
the tourism sector.
But air traffic controllers
complained that they had not been adequately trained to work at the new
facility before it opened and said they launched their walkout “for people’s
security”.
They also wanted increased
stipends for employees’ transport to the airport, some 45 km (28 miles) outside
the city centre.
Late on Friday, however, Mame
Alioune Sene, the president of the union representing the workers, said that it
was suspending the strike.
Sene said “our decision was
motivated by security issues. We think that the authorities have understood.
We’re going back to work to allow planes to take off and land.”
He, however,
did not say if the workers’ specific demands had been met.
The airport is Senegal’s busiest
and is used by international carriers including Air France, Ethiopian Airlines,
Brussels Airlines, Iberia, South African Airways, TAP Portugal and Kenya
Airways.
An airport management official
said the strike meant around 30 flights serving some 5,000 passengers had to be
cancelled or delayed.
Senegal, a fish and peanut
exporter, is looking to take advantage of its reputation for political stability
to expand tourism to its extensive Atlantic coastline.
Last year, the country launched
a new national carrier, Air Senegal, which ordered two new Airbus A330 jets
last month.
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