Stranded travelers riot at Argentine airport

updated 1:05 a.m. ET Jan. 13, 2008

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina - Stranded travelers attacked ticketing counters at Buenos Aires' Ezeiza international airport on Saturday, tossing computers in the air and shoving security guards after Aerolineas Argentinas suspended most of its flights there.

Local television broadcasts showed passengers overrunning ticketing counters, throwing computers and wrestling with airport personnel, even as a spokesman for the airline attempted to explain the cause of delays.

Tempers flared as hundreds of travelers awaited word on suspended and canceled flights. Aerolineas Argentinas attributed delays to a labor conflict involving a pilots' union and a union for airport tarmac workers. But union officials said the disruptions were caused by overbooked flights.

Ticketing counters were abandoned in the afternoon after passengers assaulted a worker at a check-in desk, said Maria de los Angeles Aguer, a spokeswoman for the Association of Aeronautical Personnel.

The strike for higher wages had sparked delays at the airport in a Buenos Aires suburb since Friday.

"There's no one from the company, no one is showing their face or telling us when we're going to fly. We're stranded with children and the elderly," a woman whose flight to Venezuela was canceled on Friday told local TV.

Aerolineas Argentinas is 95 percent controlled by Spain's Marsans, with the remainder held by the Argentine state.

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