“Black Thursday”, air traffic controllers strike, thousands of canceled flights… how will airports operate this April 25 ?
Plus de 2 000 vols en Europe ont été annulés. MAXPPP – Vincent Isore
Les compagnies aériennes s’indignent et des dizaines de milliers de passagers seront privées d’avions ce jeudi en France et en Europe malgré la levée d’un préavis de grève par le principal syndicat de contrôleurs aériens, le délai étant trop court pour reprogrammer les vols.
Airlines are outraged and tens of thousands of passengers will be deprived of planes this Thursday in France and Europe despite the lifting of a strike notice by the main air traffic controllers union, the deadline being too short to reschedule flights.
Three out of four flights will be canceled departing or arriving from Paris-Orly, the second largest French airport; 55% in Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle, the first; 65% in Marseille-Provence and 45% on all other platforms in mainland France.
More than 2,000 flights in Europe have been canceled and 1,000 risk having to divert to avoid French airspace, according to the main association of airlines in the Old Town Continent, Airlines for Europe.
Ryanair, whose boss continues to denounce the French strikes, has alone canceled "more than 300 flights" Thursday, and Transavia, low-cost airline of the Air France-KLM group, 198 flights.
And the International Air Transport Association (Iata), which brings together more than 300 companies, for its part accused French air traffic controllers of "blackmail" with their "exorbitant demands".
Agreement too late
Negotiations on an overhaul of air traffic control between the main trade union, the SNCTA, and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGAC) only concluded on Wednesday, too late while the companies had already started to cancel part of their flights in anticipation of the strike.
"Despite the lifting of this notice, the late conclusion of negotiations with the SNCTA and the need to finalize discussions with other trade union organizations will not make it possible to avoid disruptions"< /em> Thursday, indicated the DGAC, calling on "passengers who can to postpone their trip and seek information from their airline".
"An agreement has been reached, the SNCTA lifts its notice", the organization had previously announced in a short message on its website, following a "last minute" conciliation. during the night from Tuesday to Wednesday.
The SNCTA protested against the accompanying measures, notably salaries, of an overhaul of French air traffic control, and promised "record mobilization& quot;for Thursday, despite the commitment not to strike for salary reasons as part of a "Olympic truce" announced last September. Minister Delegate for Transport Patrice Vergriete welcomed an agreement "win-win".
European passengers "in the dark"
"The user will find more security, fewer delays" thanks to the reform, estimates Mr. Vergriete in a telephone interview with the AFP, without giving details on the concessions obtained by the controllers. The SNCTA notably demanded a 25% increase in remuneration spread over five years.
The minister assured that it would be a sham operation for the taxpayer, the DGAC budget being supplemented by fees paid by the airlines. They nevertheless pass on their costs to the price of their tickets.
According to Mr. Vergriete, the SNCTA waived a second notice, during the extended Ascension weekend on May 9, 10 and 11. Air traffic controllers include two other representative unions, Unsa Icna and Usac-CGT, which did not communicate on Wednesday. "We are very optimistic about the fact of being able to complete the agreement" with them, said the minister.
In the meantime, Thursday promises to be very difficult for air travelers in France, but also in Europe where "hundreds of thousands of passengers (are) in the dark", lamented Airlines for Europe.
"The scale of disruption caused by this strike action and the impact it is having on our customers is completely unacceptable, particularly for the hundreds of thousands of customers whose flights are not taking off or do not land in France but who will suffer significant disruptions", irritated the general director of easyJet, Johan Lundgren, in a statement sent to l’AFP.
Ryanair denounced that France does "nothing to protect overflights over its territory during its national strikes" . In a statement, its CEO Michael O’Leary again urged the European Commission to "take action to protect overflights, which would eliminate more than 90’ ;nbsp;% of these cancellations".
According to the Eurocontrol organization, the airspace it monitors currently sees some 30,000 daily flights. In France, on Wednesday, some 5,600 takeoffs and landings were planned according to the DGAC dashboard.
Two of the three major French academic zones are still on spring break. Roissy welcomed 203,000 passengers on Monday and Orly 111,000, but these airports concentrate around half of French traffic.
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