ROME - Italian airline Alitalia said it was cancelling 211 flights scheduled for Friday after unions representing air traffic controllers called a four-hour strike that day.
Employees of Italy's railway company Trenitalia will meanwhile begin a 24-hour walkout at 1900 GMT Thursday to press demands for pay rises, unions said.
Alitalia said Thursday that 97 domestic flights and 114 international flights scheduled for Friday were cancelled.
Air traffic controllers will stop work from 1000 GMT to 1400 GMT.
The strike has been called by the UGL minority union which represents about 10 percent of the 1,500 Italian controllers, a union spokesman said.
According to the union Italy's company for air navigation services ENAV did not comply with an agreement reached last year, failing to settle organizational issues and lay down rules for staff mobility.
Two other small unions have called for a separate strike on May 28.
ENAV regretted in a statement that a strike organized by a single union of the 13 representing the controllers will "cause so much disruption in the entire country".
It said UGL turned down a request by a state body enforcing minimum public service during walkouts to delay the strike until May 28 to keep inconvenience for passengers to a minimum.
Alitalia, 62.3 percent owned by the state, faces a major financial crisis, after losing 462 million euros (593 million dollars) before tax and exceptional items in 2004, a slight improvement on the 525 million euro (661 million dollars) loss the year before. The government plans to cut its holding to less than 50 percent.
A rescue package approved last year provides for 3,700 of the company's 20,000 jobs to go.
05/12/2005 16:31 GMT