Tuesday has become a day of travel chaos in Europe with strike action in three countries, France, Austria and Italy, causing major problems.

In France air, rail and bus travel has been severely disrupted by the latest 24-hour stoppage by public service unions over government proposals for pension reforms. Similar protests over pension rights have brought Austria to a virtual halt.

In Italy, action by cabin crews at Alitalia over threatened job reductions, which started at the weekend, has been exacerbated by a four-hour stoppage of all the airline's employees and caused around 200 flight cancellations.

All Europe's major airline have been cancelling or rescheduling services to and from France. The country's national carrier, Air France, is operating only 35 percent of short and medium-haul flights but its long-haul services are still flying

Other carriers badly affected are British Airways, which has canceled 90 of its daily 120 flights between the UK and France. Germany's Lufthansa has cut nearly 100 flights and another big sufferer is Spain's Iberia.

Europe's two biggest low fare operators, easyJet and Irish carrier Ryanair have also been forced to scale back sharply on French services.