Striking mechanics at Serbian flag carrier JAT Airways have halted all flights into Belgrade Airport, including international services, a JAT spokeswoman said on Friday.
"The flights were halted at 16:10 (1410 GMT). The last one to leave was the flight to Milan," the spokeswoman said. She said the airline's management was holding an emergency meeting to decide on a plan of action.
"It's not a general strike. Only the mechanics are striking but since they issue papers for the planes all flights are halted," she added.
Belgrade airport said in a statement carried by state news agency Tanjug that only JAT planes were affected and that other airlines' services were running as scheduled.
Over the past 10 days, JAT mechanics have held one hour warning strikes because of what they see as an unfair wage scale within the company.
Angered at the latest paychecks, the trade union demanded that management be sacked and a more just distribution of wages implemented.
JAT Airways plane engineers reached a deal with management only this week to suspend the strikes, which began on October 11. The action had not affected international traffic and a minimum number of internal flights was maintained.
The engineers had agreed to suspend their strikes until November 20 to give management time to revise the collective agreement and narrow the range of salaries within the company.
(Reuters)
