The French Directorate of French Civil Aviation (DGAC) asked airlines on Tuesday to give up a quarter of their flights from or when the major Parisian airports arrive on Thursday, on the first day of a strike of air controllers.
At the edge of the summer school holidays, this social movement launched by the second and third unions of Aiguilleurs du Ciel, who protest in particular against their ‘structural under-effective’, will particularly affect airports in the south of France, the DGAC announcing a reduction in half of the flight programs in Nice, the third French airport, as well as in Bastia and Calvi, Corsica.
The administration, which seeks to adequate the number of controllers to their posts and the flights to manage in order to avoid additional disturbances, also claimed cancellations for 30% of flights at the start and arrival of Lyon, Marseille, Montpellier, Ajaccio and Figari, she added in a press release.
In addition to the links to Paris-Charles-de-Gaulle and Orly Parisian airports, the first two of the country, the DGAC demanded from the carriers that they give up a quarter of their flights to Beauvais, a Low-Cost ‘platform near the capital where the Irish company Ryanair is based in particular.
‘Despite these preventive measures, disturbances and significant delays are to be expected on all French airports,’ warned the administration.
‘Structural sub-effective’
After two unsuccessful ‘conciliation’ meetings with the DGAC, the last Monday, the second Syndicate of Sky Steers, the UNSA-ICNA, maintained its call for strike on Thursday and Friday.
The trade union organization, which brought together 17% of the votes in the last professional elections, estimated that the administration had formulated ‘no response to the alerts transmitted however for weeks’, and quoted among its grievances a ‘structural under-effective’, ‘technical projects in failure’ and a ‘toxic management’.
‘The DGAC recognizes the difficulties linked to the situation of chronic sub-effective, which affect the quality of the service rendered to airlines. It is precisely to remedy this that she defends an ambitious recruitment plan, enshrined in a multi -year strategy, in order to guarantee an efficient and secure service, ‘argued the administration last week.
This had also said ‘deeply regrets the choice of these dates (July 3 and 4), which correspond to the most busy days of the year, due to the many vacation departures during this period’.
The UNSA-ICNA was joined last Thursday in this movement by the third union of controllers, the USAC-CGT (16% of the vote), which had also denounced a ‘strongly degraded social context’ at the DGAC, but called to strike on July 3. ‘The DGAC does not seem to have measured the level of exasperation of its agents,’ argued this last organization on Monday.
The first union of controllers, the SNCTA (60% of the votes), told AFP not to call a strike.
/ATS
