The French air traffic controllers’ union members went on strike Wednesday for at least two days, and there could be more walkouts throughout the busy tourist season. A second strike could occur April 16-18, and another April 29 through May 2.
The French Civil Aviation Authority has asked airlines to adjust their flight schedules in and out of French airports by 40 to 50 percent. Air France says it expects to operate almost all of its long-haul flights and more than 60 percent of medium-haul flights.
What effect this will have on cargo depends on how much belly freight carriers have scheduled. Adding to the mayhem, in the U.K. the Stansted Express service, a direct train to Stansted Airport, was disrupted after a person was hit by a train. Passengers who were flying to Spain and France were stranded at Stansted.
The air traffic controllers are striking over what they consider an unfair retirement age of 59 over their counterparts in other European countries, who retire at 57. They also don’t want to be under the management of Single European Skies (SES) which would be more efficient. SES is an initiative to organize air traffic into functional blocks according to traffic flow rather than national borders. IATA has condemned the strike.
“There are more borders in the skies over Europe than exist on land. And that comes at a great cost,” said IATA general director Tony Tyler. “In 2012, over 130 million hours of potentially productive time were wasted because of delays that could have been prevented with SES. It is indefensible that France’s air traffic controllers are now going on strike in order to perpetuate travel delays in Europe.”.
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