The air traffic controllers strike on Thursday, July 3 and Friday, July 4, disrupts the start of the summer holidays. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation announced to the France-Presse agency that 933 flights at the start or arrival of France, or around 10 % of the flights planned, were canceled in France on Thursday.
Locally, these rates were much higher: 50 % in Nice, third French airport, and 25 % in Paris-Charles-de-Gaulle and Orly, where 350,000 people per day pass through in summer. The DGAC adds that the rate of strikers was 26.2 %, with 272 skylights that took part in the movement on the thousand members of service staff.
The second organization of Steel Advisors, the UNSA-ICNA (17 % of the votes in the last professional elections), launched this movement to claim better working conditions and greater workforce. He was joined by the third union force of the profession, the USAC-CGT (16 %). The first union, the SNCTA (60 % of the votes), did not call a strike.
To bring the number of controllers to their post and the volume of flights, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGAC) asked companies to give up part of their programs. Concretely, this concerns 50 % of thefts in Nice, Bastia and Calvi, and 25 % in airports serving Paris (Charles-de-Gaulle and Orly), which in summer peak periods saw some 350,000 travelers per day, and Beauvais, a stronghold of low cost.
Shortly after 2:30 p.m. Thursday, maintained flights accused significant delays, for example between forty-six minutes and an hour and ten minutes on arrival and departure in Nice and Marseille, according to the DGAC. Friday, the day before school holidays, the situation will be even more tense in Paris airports and in Beauvais, the DGAC having ordered a reduction in the number of flights by 40 %.
Delays in Europe largely attributable to the French strike
European air traffic also suffers from the movement. Some 31,500 commercial flights were scheduled for Thursday in Europe, according to an update of the Eurocontrol air traffic surveillance organization, which noted more than twenty minutes late by connection on average at 2:27 p.m., deadlines attributable to the French strike.
The first European airline, Ryanair, announced on Thursday the cancellation of 170 flights, affecting 30,000 passengers. “Once again, European families are taken hostage by strikes from French air controllers”denounced his boss, Michael O’Leary.
Air France confirmed that it was “Record to adapt your flight program”without specifying the number of cancellations, but stressed that its long-haul network was not affected. The Airlines for Europe association, which federates Ryanair, Air France-KLM, Lufthansa, British Airways and Easyjet, judged the strike “Intolerable”.
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The main European association of airlines, Airlines for Europe estimated that in Europe, 1,500 flights would be canceled Thursday and Friday, second day of the strike, “Affecting almost 300,000 passengers” A Europe. “This strike is intolerable. French air force control is already responsible for delays among the worst in Europe, and now, the actions of a minority of French skylights will disrupt the holiday projects for thousands of people in France and in Europe ”said the director general of the association, Ourania Georgoutsakou, quoted in a press release.
Philippe Tabarot castigates “unacceptable” requests for unions
A reform is underway to establish a scheme for their posts, following a « incident grave » At Bordeaux airport at the end of 2022, when two planes had almost collided. The office of inquiry and analyzes had pointed out a faulty organization of the work of sharpeners.
“When you have nothing to blame yourself for, you can point very well in the morning and in the evening, as do thousands, even millions, of French”argued the Minister of Transport, Philippe Tabarot, targeting the practice of clairances during which the controllers, in the face of lower than expected traffic, allow themselves to be unconceived. The minister regrets that the strike causes “Millions of euros” to companies, repeating not wanting to give in to requests “Unacceptable” unions.
Among the grievances of the UNSA-ICNA are “A maintained under-effective and responsible for delays a good part of the summer”obsolete tools and “Toxic management, incompatible with the required serenity and security imperatives”.
