MADRID - DOZENS of flights were cancelled, and hundreds more delayed, at Madrid's Barajas airport on Saturday due to a labour dispute involving flag carrier Iberia as well as a shortage of air traffic controllers, airline and airport officials said.

Iberia said it cancelled 32 mostly short and medium-haul flights due to an unofficial 'work to rule' campaign by pilots seeking better pay and working conditions as part of a new wage agreement.

Among the flights cancelled was one between Barcelona and Paris and two from the German cities of Munich and Frankfurt to the Spanish capital.

Flights by Iberia and other airlines were also affected by a backlog of flights from a day earlier when seven of the 23 air traffic controllers at Barajas had called in sick, causing the airport to operate with only two of its four runways.

Over 2,000 people spent the night at the airport on Friday because their flights were either cancelled or delayed, Spanish media reported.

Barajas was operating with only two of its four runways on Saturday morning but resumed normal operations by mid-afternoon, a spokesman for airport management company AENA said.

Iberia, which is discussing a tie-up with British Airways, was forced to cancel over 500 flights last month, while over 5,000 were delayed, due to the labour dispute with its pilots. -- AFP