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'Unprecedented': Thousands of flights cancelled in Europe amid strike

Thursday, 25 April 2024 3:38 PM [ Last Update: Thursday, 25 April 2024 4:04 PM ]

A traveler walks in the Terminal 2 corridors of the Paris Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airport, September 16, 2022. (File photo by AFP)

Thousands of flights have been canceled in France and Europe in the wake of a strike led by French air traffic controllers demanding better pay.

The disruptions – without precedent in decades – affected large parts of Europe on Thursday, as negotiations with certain French air traffic control employees fell through.

On Wednesday, France's DGAC civil aviation authority announced its request for airlines to cancel a significant number of flights at various airports. That included 75% of Thursday's flights at Paris Orly Airport, 55% of flights at Paris Charles-De-Gaulle, and 65% of flights at Marseilles.

The cancellations occurred despite the SNCTA, France's largest air traffic controllers union, announcing the cancellation of the April 25 strike following an agreement with management on working conditions.

Augustin de Romanet, the CEO of ADP, the company responsible for managing the airports in the capital, stated that the cancellation figures had reached their peak in two decades. He cautioned that airlines and airports faced the risk of losing tens of millions of euros each day affected by strikes.

Air traffic control strikes in France often have a significant impact on travel throughout Europe, not only restricting flights to France but also affecting air traffic across the country's airspace.

Short- and medium-range flights experienced the most significant impact, whereas long-haul flights encountered minimal disruptions.

Ryanair, a low-cost carrier, announced 300 flight cancellations on Thursday, while easyJet and Transavia each had 200 cancellations. Airlines for Europe reported that an additional 2,000 flights were canceled across Europe, with 1,000 flights having to alter their routes to bypass French airspace.

The strike action is said to cause disruptions for 50,000 of people flying with Ryanair.

EasyJet and Transavia are said to cancel 200 flights each, while across Europe, some 2,000 more flights were canceled and another 1,000 forced to change routes to avoid French airspace, the Airlines for Europe trade body said.

Airline authorities have expressed worries about the potential threat to the 2024 Paris Olympics posed by air traffic control strikes if agreements are not reached beforehand.

The anticipated influx of over a million travelers in and out of Paris for the Games could result in extensive disruptions if strikes occur.

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