AIR traffic controllers have called a second strike over France later this week, from Thursday to Saturday, just as families in school zones A and C head on holiday.
Last week’s 48-hour strike by the Syndicat National des Contrôleurs de Trafic Aérien saw 1,300 French airline flights cancelled – about one in two flights – and was estimated to have cost airlines across Europe €50million. French air space is the busiest in Europe.
The controllers are protesting against plans to raise their retirement age from 57 to 59 and rationalisation plans for European airspace.
SNCTA represents 41% of the 4,000 French controllers and the transport minister has called talks between management and unions today. If no agreement is reached then the SNCTA has called this week’s strike plus another one from April 30 to May 2.
Passengers should get advance notice from their airlines if their flight is affected as the controllers are bound to offer a minimum 50% service. Staff can be ordered to work to maintain this minimum service.
EasyJet was one of the hardest hit by the first strike and had to cancel most flights to and from France, cancelling 331 flights on Thursday and 248 on Wednesday last week.
The company put on extra flights and used larger aircraft on some routes to allow stranded passengers to travel. Ryanair said that it had had to cancel more than 500 flights.
However, airlines such as Jet2 and Monarch said they had managed to fly almost their complete schedule.
Jet 2 said it had pulled out the stops and CEO Steve Heapy said: “We weren’t about to let down our 20,000 customers who had planned to travel with us over the past couple of days. We know how important holidays are to people so something like a strike isn’t going to stop us from taking off!”
Monarch said it managed to maintain its services after rerouting flight paths to avoid French air traffic control.
The school areas likely to be affected by this week's strike are Zone A: Caen, Clermont-Ferrand, Grenoble, Lyon, Montpellier, Nancy-Metz, Nantes, Rennes and Toulouse with Zone C: Bordeaux, Créteil, Paris and Versailles.
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