Argentina Travelers Ransack Airport
Two days of severe flight delays and cancellations resulted in an eruption of violence and destruction at Argentina's Ezeiza Airport (a.k.a. Ministro Pistarini International Airport) outside Buenos Aires over the weekend, finally ending with police intervention. From Thursday until Sunday, almost all flights were grounded at the airport, leaving thousands of passengers stranded for days with no announcements from the airlines or airport. On Saturday, travelers decided to take matters into their own hands and began destroying ticket counters, knocking over computers, throwing objects at personnel (!) and wrestling with airport workers. Once the melee began, many ticket counter workers up and left.
The major carrier at the airport, Aerolíneas Argentinas, said the disruptions were due to labor conflicts with at least two airport unions, and this article and others are asserting a strike on Thursday caused the delays. Other news operations are saying the employees walked out after the violence erupted. On top of it all, union officials say there was never any strike, and all this was due to overbooked flights.Confusing! While I'd hate to agree with the management, I'm not buying it that overbooking would result in four days of grounded flights.
