Budapest - A dispute between airport staff and management at Budapest's Ferihegy International Airport entered its third day on Friday, causing further queues, cancellations and delays.

The Hungarian Airline Pilots Association was also planning to announce a strike on Friday, Hungarian media reported. Pilots are unhappy with decisions made by Budapest Airport management, the right-wing daily Magyar Hirlap said.

The German airline Lufthansa and Hungarian national carrier Malev both cancelled flights. Domokos Szollar, a spokesman the operating company Budapest Airport, warned that passengers should expect delays to all 23 remaining scheduled morning departures.

The strike began on Wednesday morning, the day after talks collapsed between management and two unions representing airport staff. Budapest airport came to a standstill when security staff walked out, effectively cutting off the flow of passengers to the departure gates.

Budapest Airport has since managed to keep running using skeleton security staff at just one of three passenger terminals, which had to be shared by all flights.

Airport workers are unhappy with management proposals for changes to working conditions, and are demanding reassurances that there will be no redundancies before
2010.

The stand-off between workers and management showed no sign of ending yesterday. Budapest Airport accused unions of "blackmail", while unions rejected a demand that they halt the strike before returning to the negotiating table. (dpa)