Air traffic control strikes against the pension reform in France greatly frustrate companies often forced to bypass the country, said Monday the head of their main world organization, on the eve of a new day of mobilization. These strikes "are almost daily", and "disrupt air traffic not only in France, but throughout the world because they force companies to go through other countries to avoid French airspace," denounced the director general of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), Willie Walsh. "I have to say it, it causes extreme exasperation of the airlines," Willie Walsh said at a press conference in Istanbul, on the sidelines of the general assembly of his organization.
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The French Directorate General of Civil Aviation warned that air traffic would be disrupted again on Tuesday due to the participation of air traffic controllers in the 14th day of mobilization against the pension reform. The administration has asked airlines to cancel a third of their flights at Paris-Orly but also one in five flights from or to the airports of Lyon, Marseille, Nice, Toulouse, Bordeaux and Nantes. These preventive cancellations are supposed to match traffic and the number of air traffic controllers available, in order to avoid flight cancellations without passengers having been able to be notified. These work stoppages, at the call of unions mobilized against the pension reform promulgated in mid-April, will also affect some en route centres de la navigation aérienne (CRNA), which guide planes flying over the national territory.
Given the geographical position of the France, these strikes have cascading effects on all European air traffic, which angers many foreign carriers forced to cancel or delay flights. The boss of Ryanair, Michael O'Leary, has launched a petition to ask the European Union to sanctuarize overflights of French territory in the event of social movements. This text has obtained more than 1.1 million signatures. For its part, the European air traffic watchdog, Eurocontrol, estimated that 10 million passengers were affected by the strike between March and early April.
