Brazilian Air Traffic Chaos nears an End

On Friday air traffic controllers suspended takeoffs in all 67 commercial airports in Brazil in a repeat of the ongoing air travel chaos that has plagued South America's largest nation for many months. During March, more than 30 percent of flights from major airports were delayed, following a failure in air traffic control in Brazil's heavily populated southern and central areas. Jose Ulisses Fontenelle, former president of the Flight Controllers Association of Brasilia, said controllers were protesting a decision by the Air Force command, which oversees the nation's air traffic controllers, to transfer top workers to other cities, according to Agencia Brasil. The controllers were protesting Friday against what were obviously retaliatory transfers of trouble-makers by the Air Forces' top brass. Planning Minister Paulo Bernardo met with other Cabinet members late Friday and went to the Air Defense Control Center, or Cindacta, to negotiate with the controllers in a meeting called by the Air Force. In resolution of the crisis, the Brazilian Cabinet agreed on a retention bonus for controllers, a change of status to civilian for some, a review of the promotions process and also to cancel all reprisal transfers made over the last six months. Air Traffic Control industrial disputation has been ongoing since anomalies in the Brazilian ATC system were revealed as causative in the GOL 737/Legacy 600 crash that killed 154 people on 29 September 2006.