About 40% of all Paris airports were cancelled on Friday, and plans were rescheduled at the highest point of the summer travel season as French air traffic controllers went on strike for better working conditions.
On Thursday, the interruption began to hit the airport near France and exacerbated Friday. The National Civil Aviation Administration requires airlines to serve Paris at Charles de Gaulle, Orly and Beauvais airports on Friday, canceling 40% of flights in Nice, Marseille, Lyon and some other cities.
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Despite the cancellation of preventive cancellations, authorities warned in a statement that “there will be “disturbance and delays” at all French airports.
Ryanair, one of the airlines that announced widespread disruption, said in a statement it canceled more than 400 flights affecting 70,000 passengers. The company said the strike would affect all its flights on French airspace, as well as traffic in and out of French airports, and urged the EU to reform air traffic rules.
Unsa-Icna, one of the two unions leading the strike, said in a statement that there were not enough employees to handle air travel and inflation was disappearing from paychecks. The union also protested new reforms aimed at scrutinizing its work, which is the cause of the near-collision at the Bordeaux airport.
Transport Minister Philippe Tabarot said the union’s demands — when French schools closed in the summer and many families went on vacation, they decided to strike — “unacceptable.”
& Copy 2025 Canadian Press
