The air traffic control strike planned for this weekend is forcing companies to cancel 70% of flights at Paris-Orly this Saturday, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGAC) announced on Friday.
“Air operators must reduce their commercial flight schedule for the day of May 25, 2024 from 4 hours to 9:30 p.m. GMT by 70% (…) at Paris-Orly airport”, according to a “notice for air missions” ( NOTAM) published by the DGAC.
One of the main air traffic controllers’ unions on Thursday called on its members to strike on Saturday and Sunday at Paris-Orly airport, to demand “adequate staffing”, according to it, not guaranteed by a recent agreement. “Our managers persist, for Orly, in stinginess and apothecary calculations which will quickly reduce the teams to understaffing,” said Unsa-Icna, the second representative union of air traffic controllers, in a leaflet.
Notice of strike from May 23 to 30
“Adequate staffing levels are a necessity to guarantee working conditions adapted to the safety missions incumbent” on air navigation control engineers, assured the union organization. She deplored that the agreement signed at the last minute at the end of April between the DGAC and the main controllers’ union, the SNCTA (60% of the votes in the last professional elections), did not resolve the issue of “understaffing” which are emerging at Orly, according to her, by 2027.
This agreement on support measures, particularly salary, for the planned overhaul of air traffic control in France, had been rejected by Unsa-Icna (17% in the last elections) and the third representative union, Usac-CGT ( 16%), who had maintained a strike notice for April 25. This movement resulted in the cancellation of several thousand flights in France and Europe.
Parallel to the mobilization of Unsa-Icna in Orly, Usac-CGT filed a strike notice from May 23 to 30 to specifically protest against the weakening of the “territorial network” planned according to the union by the control reform. air.