French airports were emptied of some of their usual passengers on Thursday, with hundreds of planes grounded, as some French air traffic controllers went on strike, again angering airlines.
Flight cancellations primarily apply to short- and medium-haul flights. In Roissy Charles-de-Gaulle, many passengers move through the terminals for their international flights, which makes us forget about the thousands of travelers who are forced to stay at home and reschedule their flights, in the middle of the French school holidays.
About 2,300 flights were scheduled to depart from or arrive at the French airport that day, compared with nearly 5,200 the day before, according to a Directorate General for Civil Aviation (DGAC) dashboard consulted by AFP.
In Europe, more than 2,000 flights have been canceled and 1,000 are at risk of being diverted to avoid French airspace, according to the continent’s main airline association, Airlines for Europe.
Read also | Air traffic controllers strike: RAM cancels several flights to and from France
To balance available staff and traffic, France’s civil aviation has asked airlines to cancel three out of four flights departing from or arriving at Paris-Orly, France’s second airport; 55% at Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle, the first, 65% at Marseille-Provence (South) and 45% at all other platforms in mainland France.
Most long-haul connections, however, avoid cancellation, with the DGAC requirement only applying to aircraft making “three or more movements” during the day.
In Marseille, of the 140 flights originally scheduled for Thursday, 88 were shown as canceled on the airport’s website, including several flights to Algeria, Greece or Luxembourg.
Low-cost airlines are the most affected
This French social movement has consequences for flights flying over French territory, with the activity of the five Centers for Air Route Navigation (CRNA), which manage the paths of aircraft flying over the territory, also being affected.
The most affected are low-cost airlines that increase their rotations in the European area. Ryanair alone canceled “more than 300 flights” on Thursday, easyJet and Transavia 200 each.
Read also | Strong disruptions are expected at French airports from Thursday
According to DGAC data, the number of flights scheduled to fly over France on Thursday is slightly more than 6,000, compared to 9,000 the day before.
In a statement, Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary again condemned the French authorities and called on the European Commission to “take measures to protect flights, which would eliminate more than 90% of these cancellations”.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA), which brings together more than 300 companies covering 83% of global traffic, for its part accused French air traffic controllers of “blackmail” with its “excessive demands”.
Royal Air Maroc warns its customers
Airlines emphasized that their customers have the option to change their flight for free or get a refund.
Without reaching summer levels, French air traffic is active at a time when two of the three main academic fields are still on spring break.
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As a reminder, Royal Air Maroc announced on Wednesday the cancellation of several of its flights scheduled for Thursday to and from France, where air traffic controllers announced a strike.
“Due to the notification of a strike by air traffic controllers on April 25 in France, we are forced to cancel flights to and from France,” the Moroccan company wrote on its X page.
“We are offering several solutions to our dear customers affected by these cancellations,” added the carrier making available to its customers search link on Internet.
“We urge our customers whose flights have been canceled not to come to the airport and to contact their initial point of sale or RAM call center to take advantage of the provisions linked above,” the same source warned.
Challenge (with AFP)
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