(Paris) 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, outraging a companies again.
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.
Philosopher Passenger
Most long-haul connections, however, escape cancellations, the DGAC’s request only applying to planes making “three or more movements” during the day.
In Marseille, out of 140 flights initially scheduled for Thursday, 88 were displayed as canceled on the airport website, including several flights to Algeria, Greece or Luxembourg.
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 the boss of Parisian airports 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.
The SNCTA, which gathered 60% of the votes of controllers in the last elections, protested against the measures accompanying an overhaul of French air traffic control, in particular salaries, and demanded, among other things, a 25% increase in remuneration spread over five years. .
For maintained flights, however, delays remain moderate, according to the DGAC. “Very few people come to airports to wait for a hypothetical plane,” we observed.
Consequences across Europe
This movement has consequences throughout Europe, the activity of five air navigation en route centers (CRNA), which manage the trajectories of aircraft flying over the territory, also being affected.
Low-cost airlines which are increasing their rotations in the European area are the most affected. Ryanair alone canceled “more than 300 flights” on Thursday, easyJet and Transavia 200 each.
According to the DGAC, the number of flights planned over France on Thursday is nearly 6,800, compared to 9,000 the day before.
Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary once again castigated the French authorities and urged the European Commission to “take measures to protect overflights, which would eliminate more than 90% of these cancellations”.
The powerful International Air Transport Association (Iata), for its part, accused French air traffic controllers of “blackmail” with their “exorbitant demands”.
Airlines stressed that their customers had the option to change flights for free or receive a refund.