France/Air traffic controllers’ strike: 25% of flights cancelled at Paris-Orly and Toulouse
This “protective and balanced” text allows putting an end to “an asymmetric system” at the origin of a “disorganization of public service,” declared the Minister of Transport, Clément Beaune, from the parliamentary chamber.
On Thursday, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation asked airlines to cancel 25% of their flight schedules at Paris-Orly, the second-largest French airport, and at Toulouse-Blagnac, due to a strike called by several air traffic controllers’ unions.
This “protective and balanced” text allows putting an end to “an asymmetric system” at the origin of a “disorganization of public service,” declared the Minister of Transport, Clément Beaune, from the parliamentary chamber.
In a statement released on Tuesday, the National Union of Air Traffic Controllers (SNCTA), the majority union in the sector that did not call for a strike, expressed support for the text, warning against “instrumentalization of the right to strike and its unreasonable use” in certain circumstances.
This new notice comes after the SNCTA committed to observing an “Olympic truce,” meaning not going on strike until the end of the Olympic and Paralympic Games scheduled in France during the summer of 2024.
According to the Minister of Transport, this agreement also involves the second-largest union in terms of votes in the professional elections of air traffic controllers, UNSA-ICNA. But not the USAC-CGT, the third union.
Numerous strike days by French air traffic controllers earlier this year, during the pension reform conflict, led the DGAC to ask airlines to preemptively cancel part of their flights.
