You will see few planes in the sky today. Air traffic was slow this Thursday morning in France due to flight cancellations requested from airlines to deal with an air traffic controllers’ strike despite a last-minute agreement reached with the main union.
Some 2,250 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.
Three unions maintained their notice
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 and 45% on all other platforms in mainland France. At Lyon-Saint-Exupéry, the cancellation rate is well respected, with long-haul flights being spared, however, depending on the airport services.
The announcement on Wednesday morning of an agreement to end the crisis by the main union, the SNCTA (60% of the votes in the last elections), had given rise to hope for an easing of the constraints weighing on airlines. Too late to avoid disruptions, especially since the three other air traffic controllers unions, Unsa-ICNA, Usac-CGT and Spac-CFDT have maintained their notice.
Moderate delays
For maintained flights, however, delays remain moderate, according to the DGAC, with Orly airport once again being the most affected with an average delay of 44 minutes on arrival and 26 minutes on departure. “Very few people come to airports to wait for a hypothetical plane,” we observed within civil aviation.
This French social movement has consequences on flights flying over French territory, with the activity of five air navigation en route centers (CRNA), which manage the trajectories of aircraft flying over the territory, also being affected.
“Hundreds of thousands of passengers (are) in the dark,” lamented the main association of airlines in the Old Continent, Airlines for Europe, which mentioned more than 2,000 canceled flights and 1,000 at risk of having to divert at the price “additional delays and disruptions”. The number of flights planned to fly over France on Thursday was almost 6,000, compared to 9,000 the day before, according to the DGAC. Here too, delays for planes flying over France are described as “light to moderate” according to the Eurocontrol organization but “high”, i.e. greater than 45 minutes, in the south-east of France.