French air traffic control unions have announced strikes to take place in the second week of June 2024, amid an ongoing dispute about pay, responsibilities, competition between airports, and the terms of industrial action itself.
Between 11-13 June, air traffic controllers at Paris Orly, the French capital’s second largest airport after Charles de Gaulle, will withdraw their labour, French union UNSA-ICNA has said. The walkout is the latest in an 18-month series of strikes, with the last – just a few weeks ago in May – causing 70% of flights to be cancelled.
While other French airports supposedly remain unaffected, it is unclear to what extent other services that usually overfly Parisian airspace controlled by Orly workers will be inconvenienced or re-routed. Anyone flying to France or taking a route that could be affected is advised to check their flight’s status with their carrier and airport before departure.
Ryanair, which as a budget airline flies 64 kilometres outside of Paris to adjacent Beauvais airport, was forced to cancel 100 flights last week as a result of air traffic control strike action. In typical Ryanair style, it has complained that the European Union is failing in what the Irish carrier calls its duty to protect passenger rights. “It is inexplicable that Ursula von der Leyen and the EU Commission have failed to take action to protect EU passengers’ Freedom of Movement during these repeated French ATC strikes,” the airline said in a statement.
The background to the strike is a mixed picture. There is longstanding disagreement over changes to regulations about strike notices, meaning that workers representatives are supposed to give 48 hours’ advance warning before they can legally go ahead with strike action, something that already affects SNCF railway employees and RATP public transit workers in the French capital.
In addition, changes to air traffic controllers’ duties and pay are part of the equation, as well as growing malaise over what some see as the marginalisation of Orly by DGAC. The southern Paris airport has lost out on Air France routes that have instead been awarded to fellow Paris airport Charles de Gaulle.
Those concerns about status are unlikely to be assuaged by the fact that France’s biggest air traffic control union, the SNCTA, recently signed up to the DGAC proposals and has appeared to isolate second-ranked for size UNSA-ICNA, saying the latest plan for industrial action is the work of a “minority” union.
