A group of Olympic Airlines maintenance staff ran onto the runway at Athens International Airport yesterday and disrupted the arrival of flights in protest at plans to privatize the carrier, as the government assured employees that they would not be left to fend for themselves.

The European Commission gave the go-ahead to Greece on Wednesday to sell off the airline after more than a decade of wrangling. Olympic is more than 2.5 billion euros in debt and the government says it cannot keep asking taxpayers to fork out money for it.

Unionists fear for the future of some 8,000 full-time and seasonal employees.

Around 200 staff protested at the airport yesterday and prevented airplanes from reaching their gates for about 15 minutes. This had a knock-on effect of delaying flights that were due to leave after noon for about half an hour, while other aircraft that were due to land at the time had to circle overhead.

The protesters also fired a flare, which landed in some brush next to the runway. A small fire broke out, causing smoke to spread across the runway, but was put out quickly by firefighters.

Transport Minister Costis Hatzidakis suggested that the unionists were being manipulated by opposition parties and said that the government would soon begin meetings with union representatives to inform them of the details of the privatization plan and what implications it would have for the employees.

“The package of measures being prepared by the government is respectable and totally covers all the categories of employees,” he said. “If they are full-time employees who were hired before January 1, 1993, they have the option of retiring. Otherwise, they can choose to join the scheme that will lead them to be transferred to other parts of the public sector or public utilities with exactly the same wages as they earn now.”

The employees intend to continue with their protests. They are due to stage a sit-in at Olympic’s offices on Syngrou Avenue today and are planning to take over the company’s offices at Athens International Airport on Tuesday.