In anticipation of the announced social movement and on the recommendation of the administration, the Ryanair company canceled 420 of its flights scheduled for Friday, while France announced 400.
Le Monde with AFP
It is a black Friday that is pressed in the French sky. Due to a strike notice filed by the most important Syndicate of Steelles of the Ciel Friday September 16, “around 1,000 flights [will be] canceled” Tomorrow, a spokesperson for management told the Fance-Pance agency general civil aviation (DGAC).
The administration said that these cancellations concerned both aircraft movements at the start of French territory. Depending on its scale, the social movement is also likely to cause delays on other links and could have repercussions on the entire European air traffic.
Cancellation of 420 flights from the Ryanair company
From Tuesday, the DGAC asked companies to reduce their flight program by 50 % in mainland France and overseas, after the strike was announced. Despite the implementation of a minimum service, “the cancellations of flights and significant delays are to be expected throughout the territory”, had thus warned the DGAC, by inviting “the passengers who can postpone their trip and To find out with their airline to find out the state of their flight “.
To avoid too high repercussions on European air traffic, the administration had said that it worked “with the European network manager (Eurocontrol) in order to offer airlines by air space by airspace national “. The minimum service which will be set up on Friday will concern airports, but also the five centers en route de la navigation air, which control aircraft passing through the French airspace and flying at more than 6,000 meters above sea level.
After Air France, which announced on Wednesday the cancellation of around 400 of its 800 flights scheduled for Friday, the Irish low cost company Ryanair said that the strike would force it to “cancel 420 flights (80,000 passengers ) Flying mainly France “. The first European air carrier by the number of aircraft movements thus denounces in an “unjustified strike” and asks the European Union to “take immediate measures to protect overflies from French air space”.
worries about wages and recruitment
The National Union of Air Traffic Controlers (SNCTA, majority), which called for this strike, explained that it has launched this movement to demonstrate its concern “about the current level of inflation as well as upcoming recruitments “. “While the 2023 finance bill, under development, arrives before the Parliament in October, the absence of guarantees from the DGAC and the public authorities is unacceptable,” added the organization in a press release.
These professionals are alarmed in particular of the planned retirement of a third party of air navigation control engineers from 2029 to 2035. “At least five years separate the recruitment of qualification” and training capacities are “structurally limited”, underlines the union. It is therefore necessary, according to him, to anticipate this “wall of departures” from next year, and budget training.
This strike notice was maintained after “conciliation discussions” at the start of the week, during which “no response [was] provided by the DGAC and the public authorities” to claims, which constitutes, according to SNCTA, “a provocation towards the profession”.
In addition to Friday’s day of action, the union announced the deposit “of a second notice” which spreads “from Wednesday September 28 to Friday September 30, 2022 inclusive”.