French air traffic controllers’ strike disrupts early summer season travel
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France’s civil aviation agency DGAC has asked airlines to reduce the number of flights in and out of the country.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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PARIS - French air traffic controllers began a two-day strike on July 3 demanding better working conditions, disrupting air travel as the summer season gets under way.
France’s civil aviation agency DGAC has asked airlines to reduce the number of flights in and out of the country, including at Paris’ Roissy Charles de Gaulle airport, one of Europe’s busiest, because of the industrial action.
Air France, France’s largest airline said it had adapted its flight schedule, without giving details, but that it was maintaining long-haul flights.
Ryanair said it had been forced to cancel 170 flights affecting over 30,000 passengers on July 3 and Friday.
“In addition to flights to/from France being cancelled, this strike will also affect all French overflights,” the Irish airline said in a statement.
France’s second-largest air traffic controllers’ union, UNSA-ICNA, said its members were striking over persistent under-staffing, outdated equipment and a toxic management culture.
“The DGAC is failing to modernise the tools that are essential to air traffic controllers, even though it continues to promise that all necessary resources are being made available,” the union said in a statement.
“The systems are on their last legs, and the (air traffic control) agency is constantly asking more of its staff to compensate for its difficulties,” it added.
Transport Minister Philippe Tabarot called the unions’ demands unacceptable.
The DGAC asked airlines to cut one in four flights in and out of Paris airports and almost half of flights out of the capital. Elsewhere, airlines were asked to reduce flights by 30 per cent to 50 per cent, with the south particularly hard hit.
“Despite these preventative measures, disturbances and significant delays are to be expected at all French airports,” the agency said, urging passengers to change their flights if they were able to.
Luxair Luxembourg Airlines warned that “additional delays and schedule changes are possible across other destinations, as air traffic rerouting and capacity constraints may cause knock-on effects throughout the network”. AFP
