Services operated by British Airways, Ryanair, Easyjet and Flybe were among those affected.
The strike by French air traffic controllers has led to budget carriers Ryanair and easyJet axing more than 50 services yesterday while British Airways has also cancelled three flights from Heathrow to the French cities of Lyon, Marseille and Toulouse.
UK airports say the strike could cause delays to flights traveling through French airspace, including those travelling to Spain.
None of the 20-plus services axed by Ryanair or easyJet are flights that connect with the UK, and easyJet, which had feared it would have to axe about 50 per cent of its French-connecting services, was told today by French air traffic control company DAGC that 25 per cent would have to be cancelled.
On Monday evening, the airline said some UK-originating flights might be affected, while Ryanair also warned passengers that the strike could affect flights overflying France, adding: “We expect further flight delays and cancellations.”
On Thursday evening, over 60 per cent of the 4,000 air traffic controllers voted in favour of the protest against government aviation cuts that will hit between 2015 and 2019. Staff fear the cuts will threaten “modernisation” and lead to a “forced low-cost” approach to their work, France24 reported.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) strongly condemned the strike action by French air traffic controllers which targets vacationers at the start of the busy summer holiday season.
“Unions bent on stopping progress are putting at risk the hard-earned vacations of millions of travelers, and from the public’s perspective, the timing of the strike could even be regarded as malicious. In additional to vacationers, business people undertaking important trips, and those awaiting urgent shipments will all face hassles and uncertain waits as flights are cancelled, delayed or diverted around a major portion of European airspace,” said Tony Tyler, IATA’s Director General and CEO.
One of France’s largest unions for air traffic controllers has called for a six-day strike to begin on 24 June. This would coincide with the first major travel weekend of the busy European summer holiday season. The strikes are in protest of critical reforms being planned to bring the management of Europe’s airspace into the modern era with efficiencies that would be delivered by the Single European Sky (SES).
“There are more borders in the skies over Europe than exist on land. And that comes at a great cost. In 2012, over 130 million hours of potentially productive time were wasted because of delays that could have been prevented with SES. It is indefensible that France’s air traffic controllers are now going on strike in order to perpetuate travel delays in Europe,” said Tyler.
Eurocontrol estimates that the failure to implement SES resulted in 70 million minutes of delays for aircraft in 2012. That is the equivalent of 133 aircraft being grounded for an entire year. The costs of this are high:
- 6 billion euros in lost productivity by travelers spending unnecessary time on aircraft
- 3 billion euros in unnecessary operating costs
- 7.8 million tonnes of unnecessary carbon emissions.
SES would transform the costly and inefficient patchwork of 37 civilian air traffic control organizations in Europe into a seamless and efficient air traffic management system safely accommodating growth in demand for travel and shipping. “The SES goals include improving safety, reducing delays, cutting emissions, modernizing infrastructure and creating 320,000 jobs. Our own research confirmed that it can be done without a single controller losing his or her job. Who could be against that? This strike is totally unjustified,” said Tyler, referring to the IATA Blueprint report on SES implementation.
France is a member of the Single Sky Committee that agreed to SES implementation. “We expect France to keep its commitment to deliver the SES. It must not buckle under the pressure of a privileged few controllers seeking to protect themselves from the ‘efficiency’ that every other industry and worker is challenged to achieve. And we urge the French government to make a strong intervention to protect travelers from this malicious and unjustified strike action,” said Tyler.
Ryanair called on the French Government and EU Commission to prevent thousands of Europe’s citizens having their flights cancelled or delayed by a small number of French Air Traffic Controllers going on strike this week (the fourth such strike in France in the last 12 months).
Ryanair was forced to cancel 26 flights today due to the French ATC strike. Customers scheduled to fly tomorrow should be prepared for delays and possible further cancellations with the strike action likely to affect flights flying to, from and over France.
Ryanair again called on the EU Commission to remove the right to strike from Europe’s air traffic controllers, who are once more attempting to blackmail ordinary consumers with strikes, and urged the French Govt & EU to intervene to prevent further cancellations and delays on Wednesday.
Ryanair noted that many of Europe’s police forces and army personnel are not allowed to strike, while air traffic controllers in the USA are also prevented by law from striking, meaning the skies over the US cannot be closed or severely disrupted by ATC strikes or work to rule. The European Commission should apply similar no strike rules here in Europe.
Alternatively, the EU should open up the skies over Europe and allow neighbouring ATC providers such as the Irish, British, German or Belgian ATC to keep the skies over France open while French ATC workers go on strike every summer.
Ryanair sincerely apologises to affected customers, who have been contacted by email, and advised all customers scheduled to travel on Tuesday to log on to the Ryanair.com website before leaving for the airport, for the latest flight information and rebooking options. (Updates regarding any disruptions to Wednesday’s flight operations will be posted on ryanair.com on Tuesday.)
Ryanair’s Chief Marketing Officer, Kenny Jacobs said: “Ryanair regrets that we have had to cancel 26 flights on Tuesday as a result of these unwarranted strikes by French air traffic controllers, who have deliberately initiated industrial action at the busiest time of the year in order to cause maximum chaos. Ordinary people who work hard all year to take a well-earned holiday have had their travel plans disrupted through no fault of theirs, or of Ryanair’s, because of the selfish actions of so few.
It is high time the EU Commission removed these air traffic controllers’ right to strike, in the same way as ATC in the US, and many of Europe’s armies and police forces, are prohibited from striking by law, to stop Europe being held to ransom by a small number of air traffic controllers every summer.
We sincerely apologise to affected customers and while Ryanair intends to operate our schedule as normal from Tuesday, passengers should be aware that delays and further cancellations are likely, and we would urge them to log on to ryanair.com for the latest flight information before leaving for the airport.”
Tatiana is the news coordinator for TravelDailyNews Media Network (traveldailynews.gr, traveldailynews.com and traveldailynews.asia). Her role includes monitoring the hundreds of news sources of TravelDailyNews Media Network and skimming the most important according to our strategy.
She holds a Bachelor's degree in Communication & Mass Media from Panteion University of Political & Social Studies of Athens and she has been editor and editor-in-chief in various economic magazines and newspapers.
