MADRID Dozens of flights were cancelled and thousands of passengers stranded in Spanish airports on Friday as air traffic controllers staged the second day of a work slow-down over a contract dispute, airport officials said. Passengers were left scrambling for hotel rooms overnight in a number of cities because of a work-to-rule action declared by controllers, who are battling with Spanish airports authority Aena over overtime requirements.

Aena said 10 percent of flights to and from Spain on Thursday were cancelled as controllers reduced their services. State radio said 80,000 people had been affected on Thursday, many forced to spend the night in airports or nearby hotels by flight cancellations. A spokesman for Madrid's Barajas international airport said all nearby hotels were filled with stranded passengers. By mid-morning on Friday, 50 flights had been cancelled at Barajas while others were delayed an average of 45 minutes, the airport spokesman said.

(Reuter)