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Hundreds of flights were canceled at French airports on Thursday despite the country’s main air traffic controllers union dropping a call for a one-day strike after striking a deal for higher wages.
In Paris, around 75 percent of flights at Orly and 55 percent at Charles de Gaulle airport will be canceled on Thursday, the civil aviation authority DGAC told airlines in a notice seen by AFP on Wednesday.
About 65 percent of services at Marseille airport and 45 percent elsewhere in France will also be cancelled, it added. The impact is expected to be similar to the cancellations expected when the strike was still ongoing.
Earlier Wednesday, the SNCTA union withdrew a strike call and said it had reached a deal for higher wages and other measures with the DGAC.
The union’s demands were in response to a planned overhaul of France’s air traffic control systems.
The DGAC said that despite the strike cancellation, the last-minute deal with SNCTA and the need to finalize details with smaller unions ensured there would still be disruptions.
It was unclear whether the two smaller unions, which had also supported the strike action, would follow suit and call off the strike.
– ‘Totally unacceptable’ –
With the details unclear, European airlines complained of extensive disruptions to air traffic – even for flights that planned to simply fly over France.
“While the withdrawal of the strike notice may provide some relief for some passengers, its last-minute nature means that there will still be significant disruption to flights in France and parts of Europe tomorrow,” said Ourania Georgoutsakou, Director of Airlines. Europe (A4E), a trade association.
Before the strike, airlines had been forced to cancel more than 2,000 flights, most of which would have landed or departed from France. Another 1,000 flights would have to deviate from French airspace, A4E said.
German airline Lufthansa and low-cost airline easyJet warned on Thursday that their passenger flights over French airspace could be affected.
“The scale of disruption caused by this strike movement and the impact it is having on our customers are completely unacceptable, especially for the hundreds of thousands of customers whose flights will not take off or land in France,” said Johan Lundgren, CEO of easyJet. The unions had called the strike after an initial breakdown in talks, raising new concerns about the risk of action during the Paris Olympics from the end of July, when millions of visitors are expected.
