Huge disruption to flights, despite French air traffic controllers calling off strike
Travellers are braced for massive disruption on Thursday with around half of flights in and out of France cancelled, despite air traffic controllers calling off their strike at the last minute. Budget airline Ryanair says that it has also been forced to cancel 300 flights passing over France.
The SNCTA union had called a 24-hour strike on Thursday, April 25th in a dispute over changes to working patterns.
The strongly supported strike was set to cause huge disruption, but on Wednesday morning the union announced that last-minute talks had been successful and "an agreement has been reached".
The SNCTA strike notice for Thursday has now been lifted, but disruption is still likely on Thursday, especially at Paris airports.
It is expected that 75 percent of flights in and out of Paris Orly airport will be cancelled and 55 percent of flights at Paris Charles de Gaulle.
'75% of flights cancelled' - which airports are worst affected by Thursday's disruption?
In addition to cancellations of flights in and out of French airports, the budget airline company Ryanair announced that over 300 of their flights set to fly over French airspace would also be cancelled.
Ryanair said that around 50,000 passengers would be affected in some way, and the most disrupted flights would be those flying over France to get from the UK to Greece, Spain, and Italy.
The disruption is due to the last-minute nature of the strike cancellation, combined with the fact that smaller unions which had also filed a strike notice could still go ahead with Thursday's walk-out.
People with flights booked for Thursday should check with their airline for possible delays or cancellations.
The SNCTA had also threatened to file strike notices over the May holiday weekend - on May 9th, 10th and 11th - but after reaching an agreement with management, the union withdrew its strike notice for these dates.
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The SNCTA union had called a 24-hour strike on Thursday, April 25th in a dispute over changes to working patterns.
The strongly supported strike was set to cause huge disruption, but on Wednesday morning the union announced that last-minute talks had been successful and "an agreement has been reached".
The SNCTA strike notice for Thursday has now been lifted, but disruption is still likely on Thursday, especially at Paris airports.
It is expected that 75 percent of flights in and out of Paris Orly airport will be cancelled and 55 percent of flights at Paris Charles de Gaulle.
'75% of flights cancelled' - which airports are worst affected by Thursday's disruption?
In addition to cancellations of flights in and out of French airports, the budget airline company Ryanair announced that over 300 of their flights set to fly over French airspace would also be cancelled.
Ryanair said that around 50,000 passengers would be affected in some way, and the most disrupted flights would be those flying over France to get from the UK to Greece, Spain, and Italy.
The disruption is due to the last-minute nature of the strike cancellation, combined with the fact that smaller unions which had also filed a strike notice could still go ahead with Thursday's walk-out.
People with flights booked for Thursday should check with their airline for possible delays or cancellations.
The SNCTA had also threatened to file strike notices over the May holiday weekend - on May 9th, 10th and 11th - but after reaching an agreement with management, the union withdrew its strike notice for these dates.
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