Controller strike grounds Greek flights

Greece’s troubled Olympic Airlines will cancel or reschedule 40 flights today because of a brief strike by air traffic controllers.

The debt-ridden state carrier says it will cancel 22 mostly domestic flights as a result of the three-hour stoppage.

Another 18 flights, including ones to London and Paris, are being rescheduled.

Olympic has accumulated losses of around €2.7bn. In September, the European

Union approved Greece’s plan to break up the airline and fully privatise it by the end of 2009.

The government has identified 16 bidders for the company.