French air traffic controllers' walkout disrupts early summer travel

A walkout by French air traffic controllers to protest against staff shortages and ageing equipment forced airlines to cancel hundreds of flights on Thursday, just as the summer season gets under way.

The strike impacted operations at airports across the country, including Paris' Roissy Charles de Gaulle airport, one of Europe's busiest hubs, and is due to run into a second day on Friday.

Lobby group Airlines for Europe said more than 1,500 flights would be cancelled over the two days, impacting nearly 300,000 travellers.

Budget airline Ryanair said it had cancelled 468 flights and expected the number to keep rising. "Once again European families are held to ransom by French air traffic controllers going on strike," Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary said. "It makes no sense and is abundantly unfair on EU passengers and families going on holidays."

France's civil aviation agency DGAC asked airlines to cut one in four flights in and out of Paris airports and almost half of flights out of the capital on Friday. Elsewhere, airlines were asked to reduce flights by 30 per cent-50 per cent, with the south hit particularly hard.

Air France, France's largest airline, said it had adapted its flight schedule, but that it was maintaining its full long-haul flight schedule.

EasyJet said it was cancelling 274 flights over Thursday and Friday. Lufthansa also reduced its schedule for the two days, affecting some flights in and out of Nice, Paris, Marseille, Lyon and Montpellier airports.

IAG-owned British Airways was using larger aircraft to mitigate disruption.

UNDERSTAFFING, OLD TECHNOLOGY

The strike coincided with the start of the European summer holidays, one of the busiest travel periods of the year.

France's second-largest air traffic controllers' union, UNSA-ICNA, said its members were striking over persistent understaffing, outdated equipment and a toxic management culture. Another union, USAC-CGT, said the DGAC had failed to comprehend the frustration felt by controllers.

"The DGAC is failing to modernise the tools that are essential to air traffic controllers, even though it continues to promise that all necessary resources are being made available," UNSA-ICNA said in a statement.

"The systems are on their last legs, and the (air traffic control) agency is constantly asking more of its staff to compensate for its difficulties," it added.

The DGAC did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the trade unions' concerns.

Their complaints echo grievances expressed by air traffic controllers in the United States over antiquated infrastructure, dramatic staffing shortfalls and failing technology.

French Transport minister Philippe Tabarot called the unions' demands unacceptable.

French air traffic control had proven to be one of the weakest links in Europe’s ATC network, posting some of Europe's worst delay records so far this year,  Airlines for Europe said.

Ryanair's O'Leary urged the European Commission, the European Union's executive arm, to reform EU air traffic control services to ensure adequate staffing at peak periods and to protect overflights - those that pass over a country or region without landing there - during national strikes.