Air traffic controllers end their three-week go-slow after being promised their demands will be considered. But the crisis, reports Amirah Ibrahim, is not over yet The escalating three-week stand-off between air traffic controllers and the aviation authority eased last Sunday when Samir Abdel-Maaboud, head of Civil Aviation, said he would consider to air controllers' demands and examine ways of meeting them. In response the air controllers ended a three-week go-slow that is estimated to have cost up to $50 million. The air controllers had demanded a 100 per cent increase in salaries, greater job security, and requested that the authorities make up an estimated LE2.5 million shortfall in pension funds. A senior official close to the aviation minister is reported to have acted as mediator, convincing the aviation authority to talk with the controllers, and the controllers to adopt a more flexible attitude to their demands. Aviation Minister Ahmed Shafiq responded positively to the mediation, reinstating two young air controllers fired at the beginning of the crisis on 8 May. Air traffic, which during the go-slow had been reduced to four aircrafts an hour landing at Egyptian airports, is now back to normal, though air controllers are continuing to stage a sit-in to protest the dismissal of three senior colleagues who are accused of masterminding the strike. Magdi Abdel-Hadi, the Air Controllers Union chief and one of the three men dismissed, said the aviation authority had so far refused to discuss whether or not the men would be returning to work. "We do not want to complicate the issue," Abdel-Hadi told Al-Ahram Weekly. "That the authorities are now ready to listen to us and negotiate is a positive sign. All we want is for the administration to consider our demands. We have no pre-conditions."
