Corsica: disruptions in the island’s ports and airports, thousands of travelers stranded

Corsica’s ports and airports were still very disrupted on Friday morning, according to the Haute-Corse prefecture and security sources. Thousands of people were still stranded in the morning. The island’s six ports were still blocked at midday, according to the two prefectures of Corsica. Five passenger ships were waiting at sea near the ports of Ajaccio and Bastia, unable to dock, with around 2,100 people on board in total.

On the aircraft side, only flights from the public “territorial continuity” service – Air France and Air Corsica flights departing from the island to Paris, Nice and Marseille – were operated. These flights are used by Corsican patients to seek treatment on the continent. This is the reason why they were able to take off, said an airport source, explaining that such a blockage had not been seen for 19 years. No other planes were able to take off.

A spontaneous strike on the island

These disruptions come following the launch Thursday afternoon of a spontaneous strike by agents of the island’s chamber of commerce. The reason for this anger? Agents of the Corsican Workers’ Union consider “unacceptable” comments made Thursday by Alexandre Patrou, a representative of the prefect of Corsica, during the general assembly of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI) in Ajaccio.

Around a hundred people accommodated

A few hours after these declarations, the unions of the Chamber of Commerce initiated a strike movement which instantly blocked the six ports and four airports of the island and the hundreds of travelers who transited there. Some 130 people were housed for the night in a Bastia gymnasium, said the Haute-Corse prefecture, which activated an information number (08 06 00 01 49).

The Minister for Transport, François Durovray, said on Friday on FranceInfo that he was making “the resumption of traffic a prerequisite”, ensuring that he had “asked the prefect of Corsica to re-establish dialogue with the local community”. This conflict aims to force the State to allow the creation by January 1, 2025 of two open mixed unions (SMO) port and airport, so that they entrust the management of the ports to the island chamber of commerce and industry. and airports, as is the case today.

“Serious failures”

Declaring that this arrangement presented “a significant legal risk”, Alexandre Patrou indicated that this system could “not circumvent the call for tenders” planned for any public contract. “If the State goes back on its word, we will not accept it,” warned Gilles Simoni.

In April, the prefect of Corsica recalled the “serious failures” repeated since the end of 2022 at Ajaccio airport in terms of passenger and baggage screening. To “urgently remedy” this, the CCI was placed under reinforced surveillance by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation from April 9.