Strikes by French air traffic controllers threaten travel chaos for tourists

Staff are due to walk out on every day in April

A traveller at the Charles de Gaulle international airport’s terminal 2 walks in front of a flight information board during a strike by air traffic controllers. EPA

Planned strikes threaten to cause major travel chaos for tourists travelling to France over the Easter break.

Holidaymakers have been warned they face a difficult spring and summer due to continuing industrial action against pension reforms, with French air traffic controllers due to walk out every day in April.

Strikes across the Channel in the UK are already causing problems for Britons, with British Airways being forced to reduce its flight schedule due to planned strikes by Heathrow Airport employees during the Easter holiday weekend.

About 1,400 members of the Unite union are walking out until April 9 in a dispute over pay.

On Wednesday, airline leaders in France called for measures to help prevent chronic French air traffic control strikes penalising thousands of passengers using the country's airspace for transit, as Paris warned of new protests on Thursday.

Ryanair was forced to cancel 230 flights last month, and another 120 on Wednesday and Thursday because of the strikes, according to The Times.

The airline’s Chief Executive Michael O'Leary said it was a “scandal” that French strikes had blocked many flights over France's airspace, disrupting services between different countries, including the busy tourist market between Britain and Spain.

He told The Times: “It is difficult to explain to passengers in the UK, Ireland and Spain that their flights are cancelled because of a few air traffic controllers in France walking out, even though their flight is not landing in France.”

Airlines have to compensate passengers for long delays or cancellations under European passenger laws but are unable to recover penalties from air traffic authorities when airspace is blocked, he told the A4E Aviation Summit in Brussels.

Tension between airlines and French controllers has been a recurring issue but escalated this year as the controllers joined strikes over planned changes to France's retirement age.

France's DGAC aviation authority said it was applying minimum service rules for some flights but the airline industry wants this to apply to overflights, as well as domestic trips.

Pension reform strikes continue in France — in pictures

Mr O'Leary said airports were better prepared for delays this summer after widespread chaos last year but that he expected further air traffic control problems in coming months.

Strikes that have gripped France and other European nations were among a cluster of concerns raised by airline leaders at their annual public event in Brussels.

Airline bosses also lamented what they see as insufficient support from the EU to help drive up production of greener Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) and bring down its cost, as it is seen as one of the only short-term ways of decarbonising the sector.

They said that the burden needed to be spread across the sector, not placed solely on the shoulders of airlines. Critics say airlines are not doing their part to help drive investment in sustainable fuels.

Lufthansa Chief Executive Carsten Spohr said: “We are running businesses. I think we are proud of what we have achieved … But now it's up to the voters and potential customers, and consumers like industries, to decide if they want to put their money in it.”

He added that only 4 per cent of Lufthansa customers were purchasing a special more expensive “green” airfare ticket, while Mr O'Leary said less than 1 per cent of Ryanair’s customers purchased voluntary carbon offsets offered by the airline.

The airline leaders also stepped up calls for longer-term reforms to Europe's fragmented airspace, which is separated along national lines, resulting in delays. This would also help the sector reduce carbon emissions, they say.

The European Commission has been working for years on a long-delayed reform called Single European Sky. Political analysts say it is being held up by individual nations worried about the impact on jobs at national control centres.

EU Transport Commissioner Adina-Ioana Valean said she hoped for some progress later this year, without elaborating.