The disruptions that began affecting French airports on Thursday intensified today, with the French aviation authority requesting airlines cancel 40% of flights at Charles de Gaulle, Orly, and Beauvais airports serving Paris, half of the flights in Nice, and 30% of flights in Marseille, Lyon, and several other cities.
Despite the preventive cancellations, the authority warned in a statement that “disruptions and significant delays are to be expected at all French airports.”
Ryanair, one of the airlines announcing widespread disruptions, stated in a release that it had canceled more than 400 flights, affecting 70,000 passengers.
The company mentioned that the strike impacts all its flights in French airspace, as well as traffic entering and leaving French airports, and urged the European Union to reform air traffic rules.
One of the two unions leading the strike, UNSA-ICNA, declared in a statement that there aren’t enough staff to handle the increase in air travel and that inflation is eroding wages. The second-largest French air traffic controllers’ union is also protesting against outdated tools and “toxic management, incompatible with the serenity and safety demands required.” The other union joining the strike is Usac-CGT, the third largest in the sector in France.
The unions are also protesting against new reform measures aimed at more strictly controlling their work—namely through a time clock—prompted by a near collision at Bordeaux airport at the end of 2022.
The main air traffic controllers’ union, SNCTA, did not join the strike.
French Transport Minister Philippe Tabarot deemed the union’s demands “unacceptable” and the decision to strike during the time when French schools close for the summer, with many families going on holiday, as inappropriate.
The influential association Airlines for Europe, which includes Air France-KLM, Lufthansa, British Airways, easyJet, and Ryanair, among others, considered the strike “intolerable” on Thursday and warned it “would disrupt the holiday plans of thousands of people.”
