Between 25 and 33% of flights canceled in the largest French airports: air traffic promises to be very disrupted on Monday May 1 due to the participation of controllers in the strike movement once morest the pension reform. The General Directorate of Civil Aviation (DGAC) in fact asked airlines on Wednesday to give up a third of their flight program at Paris-Orly and a quarter at Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle, to bring the traffic and the number of air traffic controllers available.

Many airports concerned in the region

These work stoppages, at the call of unions mobilized once morest the reform promulgated in mid-April, will also concern many regional airports: 33% of flights will have to be canceled preventively in Marseille, Lyon, Bordeaux, Nantes and Toulouse, while that 25% of movements will be canceled in Nice and Beauvais, said the DGAC in a press release. This mobilization of air traffic controllers therefore promises to be one of the strongest since the beginning of the challenge to the reform.

“Despite these preventive measures, disruptions and delays are nevertheless to be expected”, noted the DGAC on Wednesday, inviting “passengers who can to postpone their trip and to inquire with their airline to find out the ‘state of their flight’. In addition to airports, disruptions may concern certain en route air navigation centers (CRNA), which guide aircraft flying over national territory.

Cascading effects on all European air traffic

Given the geographical position of France, these strikes have cascading effects on all European air traffic, which bristles many foreign carriers forced to cancel or delay flights. In a letter of notice to the Director General of Civil Aviation, the Union Syndicale de l’Aviation Civile-CGT (USAC-CGT) indicated that it “continues to be part of the mobilization decided by the ‘all trade union confederations’ on Labor Day.

This notice concerns “the day of May 1, 2023” and “the nights upstream and downstream for agents working in staggered hours, completed the USAC-CGT. The USAC-CGT is at the forefront in the mobilization of air traffic controllers once morest the pension reform, which resulted in 34 days of strikes in the first quarter alone, according to the National Federation of Aviation and its Trades (Fnam), spokesperson for airlines in France.

3,500 flights canceled in the first quarter due to strikes

Another union, the SNCTA, which claims to be in the majority among air traffic controllers, does not, however, call for a strike once morest this very unpopular reform and promulgated on April 15 by President Emmanuel Macron. According to the Fnam, some 3,500 flights were canceled in the first quarter because of the strike, including 500 “hot”, without the passengers being able to be warned in advance, synonymous with difficult situations in the terminals.

For its part, the European air traffic monitoring body, Eurocontrol, estimated that 10 million passengers were affected by the strike between March and the beginning of April. At the end of March, the main organization of European companies, Airlines for Europe, called on the European Commission to act to protect overflights of French territory in the event of a strike by air traffic controllers, as already exists in Italy and Spain.