The Spanish government has threatened striking air traffic controllers with arrest, DPA reported.
Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba said the government would declare a state of emergency if normal operations were not resumed on Saturday and the strikers could face immediate arrest.
Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero issued a decree transferring responsibility for air traffic control to the military.
The move was intended to force civil air traffic controllers to return to work or face being charged and prosecuted under military law. Air traffic controllers who refuse to return face up to ten years in prison.
The civil airports authority AENA said 70 per cent of all controllers had either left their stations or failed to turn up for work on Friday, without prior notice. Many called in to say they were sick or unable to work.
The industrial action brought air transport in Spain to a near standstill. Around 1,800 flights were cancelled, according to the state-run radio broadcaster RNE.
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