75% of flights canceled at Paris-Orly and 55% at Roissy on Thursday, despite the lifting of the majority union’s notice

The majority union among French air traffic controllers announced, Wednesday April 24, the lifting of its strike notice for Thursday. “An agreement has been reached, the SNCTA lifts its notice”explained the organization in a short message on its website, following a conciliation of “last minute” with the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGAC).

However, despite the lifting of the notice, 75% of flights remain canceled on Thursday at Paris-Orly and 55% at Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle, according to a notification sent to the airlines. These reductions in flight programs requested by the DGAC will reach 65% in Marseille-Provence and 45% in other airports in France. These rates are identical to or slightly lower than the initial requests communicated Tuesday evening, before the announcement of the lifting of the SNCTA notice.

“Black day”

“Tomorrow remains a dark day”warned on franceinfo the president of the French Airports Union, Thomas Juin. “The impact for tomorrow remains significant unfortunately, since we are now a few hours before the strike day and the General Directorate of Civil Aviation is not in a position to really significantly modify the reductions that were planned”he explains.

Dtheir other unions, Unsa Icna and Usac-CGT, had also called for a strike. The three organizations had mobilized to protest against the accompanying measures, particularly salary, for an overhaul of French air traffic control. The SNCTA, which gathered 60% of the votes of air traffic controllers in the last professional elections, did not communicate details on the crisis exit protocol, nor on the consequences on air traffic for Thursday.