France: an air traffic control strike disrupts vacation departures

Half of the flights canceled in Nice, a quarter at Paris airports on Thursday, and more on Friday: a strike of French air controllers will disrupt the start of the summer holidays of tens of thousands of travelers.

The second Syndicate of Steelles of the Heaven, UNSA-ICNA (17% of the votes in the last professional elections) launched this movement to claim better working conditions and greater staff.

He was joined by the third union force of the profession, the USAC-CGT (16%). From a source close to the file, 270 air controllers declared themselves strikers on Thursday, out of a total workforce of around 1,400.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGAC), to adequate the number of controllers at their post and the volume of flights to be managed in complete safety, asked the airlines to give up part of their programs.

Southern airports are particularly affected: in addition to Nice, the third French platform, half of the flights are canceled in Bastia and Calvi, and 30% in Lyon, Marseille, Montpellier, Ajaccio and Figari.

In the Paris region, these cancellations concern a quarter of the links on the departure or arrival of Paris-Charles-de-Gaulle and Orly, two airports which during summer peak periods usually see transit some 350,000 travelers per day in total.

Strong place in the “low-cost”, that of Beauvais is housed in the same brand, with 25% of cancellations, according to the DGAC which warned that “despite these preventive measures, disturbances and significant delays are to be expected on all French airports”.

Friday, the situation will be even more tense in Parisian airports and in Beauvais, the DGAC having ordered a reduction in the number of flights by 40%.

Air traffic across Western Europe should suffer from the movement, given the central geographical location of France.

The influential Airlines for Europe Association, which, among others, federates Air France-KLM, Lufthansa, British Airways, Easyjet and Ryanair, judged the strike “intolerable” and warned that it was going to “disturb the holiday projects for thousands of people”.

From a source close to the file, it is indicated that business aviation, especially in Nice and Le Bourget near Paris, will also be very affected.

On Wednesday, the Minister of Transport excluded to yield. “The demands brought by minority unions are unacceptable, as is the choice to make this strike at the time of the big starts in vacation,” said Philippe Tabarot.

“I am resolved to hold on to this movement and in particular in the face of the demand for abandoning a certain number of provisions”, including the installation of pointers, he added.

A reform is underway to establish a pointing of the controllers at the postal post, following a “serious incident” at Bordeaux airport at the end of 2022, when two planes had almost collided.

The Office of Investigation and Analysis for the Safety of Civil Aviation (BEA) has pledged responsibility for a faulty organization of the work of sharpeners, without compliance with the service table.

“It is the safety of the flights and the seriousness of the profession, and I will not give in to this essential reform,” said Philippe Tabarot.

In terms of companies, Air France confirmed that it was “forced to adapt its flight program”, without specifying the number of cancellations, but stressed that its long-haul network would not be affected.

Like her, her subsidiary Low-Cost Transavia indicated that her customers concerned were informed individually and that “commercial measures” would allow “a postponement of the trip at no cost or a full refund”.

In response to Philippe Tabarot’s words, UNSA-ICNA said “regret®® has now taken precedence over the treatment of major issues” at the DGAC.

The union has cited for this purpose “an under-effective maintained and responsible for delays a good part of summer”, obsolete tools and “toxic management, incompatible with the required serenity and security imperatives”.

The first Syndicate of Sky Steers, the SNCTA (60% of the vote), told AFP not to call a strike.