France begins cancelling flights from Paris airports
Airports in the Paris began cancelling flights on Tuesday, with thousands more to be scrapped over the coming weeks because of an air traffic control software upgrade.
Several thousand flights will be cancelled between Tuesday, January 9th and Wednesday, February 14th in France, due to a computer system upgrade.
Approximately 20 percent of flights from the Paris region will be cut, with the airports Roissy-Charles de Gaulle, Orly, Le Bourget, and Paris-Beauvais all affected.
In total, approximately 16,500 flights are expected to be cancelled, with 4,379 of them pertaining to Air France.
Will my flight be affected?
The announcement first came in November 2023, and at the time, the head of BAR (the board for Airline Representatives), Philippe Brieu, told French media, 20 Minutes, that most long haul flights were spared.
Ultimately, companies were left with the decision regarding which flights to cancel, and they tend to prioritise maintaining long-haul journeys.
Certain airlines, like Air France, indicated that passengers would be automatically transferred onto a different, similar flight.
As the plans have been in discussion for several weeks, people with flights booked in this period have likely already been informed by their airline of any cancellations.
That being said, if you have travel planned during this period in or out of one of the four airports listed above, you would still be advised to check your booking to see whether any changes have been made.
If your flight was cancelled, you should be offered an alternative flight.
READ MORE: Your rights on delayed or cancelled flights in France
What about other French airports?
Cancellations are expected to be kept to the Paris regional airports. Eventually, the new technology will be introduced in other airports.
It is slated to be added in Brest and Bordeaux in November 2024.
4-Flight has already been successfully deployed at the Reims and Aix-en-Provence airports.
What does the new technology do?
4-Flight will allow greater optimisation of air traffic, as "the controller will have a better prediction of the aircraft's trajectory, which reduces flight time and fuel consumption", DSNA management told French media in November.
The ambitious plan will also integrate "a new flight plan processing system and a new control environment, which means changing almost 80 percent of the French system."
French air traffic controllers handle around 3 million flights per year, of which many are 'overflights' - passing through French airspace as they travel across Europe.
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Several thousand flights will be cancelled between Tuesday, January 9th and Wednesday, February 14th in France, due to a computer system upgrade.
Approximately 20 percent of flights from the Paris region will be cut, with the airports Roissy-Charles de Gaulle, Orly, Le Bourget, and Paris-Beauvais all affected.
In total, approximately 16,500 flights are expected to be cancelled, with 4,379 of them pertaining to Air France.
Will my flight be affected?
The announcement first came in November 2023, and at the time, the head of BAR (the board for Airline Representatives), Philippe Brieu, told French media, 20 Minutes, that most long haul flights were spared.
Ultimately, companies were left with the decision regarding which flights to cancel, and they tend to prioritise maintaining long-haul journeys.
Certain airlines, like Air France, indicated that passengers would be automatically transferred onto a different, similar flight.
As the plans have been in discussion for several weeks, people with flights booked in this period have likely already been informed by their airline of any cancellations.
That being said, if you have travel planned during this period in or out of one of the four airports listed above, you would still be advised to check your booking to see whether any changes have been made.
If your flight was cancelled, you should be offered an alternative flight.
READ MORE: Your rights on delayed or cancelled flights in France
What about other French airports?
Cancellations are expected to be kept to the Paris regional airports. Eventually, the new technology will be introduced in other airports.
It is slated to be added in Brest and Bordeaux in November 2024.
4-Flight has already been successfully deployed at the Reims and Aix-en-Provence airports.
What does the new technology do?
4-Flight will allow greater optimisation of air traffic, as "the controller will have a better prediction of the aircraft's trajectory, which reduces flight time and fuel consumption", DSNA management told French media in November.
The ambitious plan will also integrate "a new flight plan processing system and a new control environment, which means changing almost 80 percent of the French system."
French air traffic controllers handle around 3 million flights per year, of which many are 'overflights' - passing through French airspace as they travel across Europe.
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