The state-owned company which runs Spain’s airports has reached a preliminary agreement with unions that have called 22 days of strikes during peak holiday seasons in protest at plans to privatise half the firm.

Spanish union leaders are threatening to unleash a strike by airport workers which could close down the country’s hubs during the busy Easter holiday season.

Ryanair is to take legal action against a number of Spanish unions over wildcat strikes of air traffic controllers (ATCs) earlier this month which caused the cancellation of over 500 Ryanair flights.

Spain placed striking air traffic controllers under military authority today and threatened them with jail terms in an unprecedented emergency order to get planes back in the skies and clear chaotic airports clogged with irate travellers.

Spanish airspace reopened this afternoon after a strike by air traffic controllers that left thousands of British holidaymakers stranded, authorities in the country said.

A massive air traffic controller walkout today on the eve of a long holiday weekend caused travel chaos throughout Spain, forcing authorities to close eight airports, including the major European hub in Madrid.

Heavy snow has hit northern Spain and Portugal while rains and winds have battered normally sunny resort areas.

Picketers hurled eggs at buses and blocked trucks from delivering produce to wholesale markets as Spanish workers went on a general strike today.

Spain’s air traffic controllers’ planned strike will not be before August 16, they said today.

Twenty airports in the north of Spain, including international hub Barcelona, have been closed as the Icelandic volcanic ash cloud spreads south, the country’s airport authority said today.

Much of Europe began to return to normal today after days of harsh winter weather.

MORE than 2,000 Irish tourists on holidays in Majorca have been urged to stay on alert for any suspect packages after a triple bomb attack by terrorist group ETA on the Spanish resort.

SPANAIR, the airline involved in a crash last week that killed 154 people in Madrid, had another technical problem yesterday with one of its planes and had to make an unscheduled landing, Spain’s aviation authority said.

Spain's aviation authority says Spanair, the airline involved in a crash that killed 154 people this week, has had another technical problem with one of its aeroplanes.

A VIDEO of the Madrid air disaster showed no engine on fire as the Spanair jet hurtled to a fiery crash and experts now believe a chain of faults lay behind the catastrophe.

More than one failure is likely to have caused the airliner crash in Madrid, according to Spain's civil aviation chief.

A Spanish airliner bound for the Canary Islands at the height of the holiday season crashed, burned and broke into pieces today while trying to take off from Madrid, killing 149 people on board, officials said.

A Spanish company best known for running toll roads looked set today to acquire the owner of Luton airport in a deal worth £551m (€788m).