French Air Traffic Strike Disrupts European Summer Travel

PARIS – A two-day strike by French air traffic controllers, protesting understaffing and what they describe as “toxic management,” has caused widespread disruption to air travel across Europe at the outset of the busy summer holiday season. The industrial action, which began on Thursday, has led to hundreds of flight cancellations, affecting tens of thousands of passengers.

Impacts have been severe at major French airports, with Nice, the country’s third-largest, seeing half of its flights cancelled. Paris Orly and Paris Charles de Gaulle, a key European hub, experienced a quarter of their flights grounded. Airlines have been asked by the DGAC civil aviation authority to reduce flights to ensure adequate staffing.

Ryanair, Europe’s largest airline, announced the cancellation of 170 flights, impacting approximately 30,000 passengers. CEO Michael O’Leary criticized the strike for “holding European families to ransom,” emphasizing that most affected passengers were overflying French airspace rather than flying to or from France. He called on European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen for “urgent action” to protect overflights. Airlines for Europe (A4E), an industry body including major carriers like Air France-KLM and Lufthansa, labeled the action “intolerable.”

The strike, initiated by UNSA-ICNA and joined by USAC-CGT, stems from demands for better working conditions, increased staff, and a protest against “chronic understaffing,” outdated equipment, and specific management practices. France’s Transport Minister Philippe Tabarot has deemed the unions’ demands “unacceptable.”

Disruption is anticipated to worsen on Friday, the eve of school holidays, with Paris airports and Beauvais facing a mandated 40-percent reduction in flights. Eurocontrol, the air traffic management organization, warned of “significant” delays in airspace managed by control centers in Marseille, Brest, and Reims.