Strike in France: thousands of flights canceled

French airports emptied of some of their usual passengers, hundreds of planes grounded: air transport is very disrupted on Thursday due to a strike by some of the French air traffic controllers, once again outraging the companies.

Flight cancellations primarily concern short and medium-haul flights. At Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle, many passengers headed through the terminals for their international flights, luckier than the thousands of others forced to stay home and reschedule their flights, in the middle of French school holidays.

Nearly 2,600 flights departing from or arriving at a French airport are planned for the day, compared to nearly 5,200 the day before, according to the dashboard of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGAC) consulted by the AFP early in the afternoon.

In Europe, more than 2,000 flights have been canceled and 1,000 risk having to divert to avoid French airspace, according to the main association of airlines in the Old Continent, Airlines for Europe.

To bring available staff and traffic into line, French civil aviation had asked companies to cancel three out of four flights departing from or arriving at Paris-Orly, the second French airport; 55% in Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle, the first, 65% in Marseille-Provence (south) and 45% on all other platforms in mainland France. Most long-haul connections, however, escape cancellations, the DGAC’s request only applying to planes making “three or more movements” during the day.

For passengers who were able to get through the disruptions, some were forced to make some adaptations, like Christelle, 54, met in Marseille where she was waiting for a flight to the island of Santorini (Greece) after having had to take a plane earlier than planned, Wednesday evening from Nantes, its point of origin.

“I arrived at night. I spent the night at Marseille airport,” she explains philosophically: “People fought for this right to strike. So yes, I understand. And then I can leave and then it’s to go on vacation, to go to the sun… And then I read.”

In Nantes, 49 rotations were canceled on Thursday, or 50% of the program, while in Brest, this proportion reached 60%, out of around thirty planned.

These cancellations, on an unprecedented scale “for around twenty years” according to Paris airports boss Augustin de Romanet, were imposed by the DGAC in view of the number of declared strikers.

However, the announcement on Wednesday morning of an agreement to end the crisis by the main union, the SNCTA, had given rise to hope for an easing of constraints. Too late to avoid disruption, especially since the three other unions, Unsa-ICNA, Usac-CGT and Spac-CFDT, have maintained their notice.