strike notice for French air traffic controllers for May 1

2023-04-26 18:12:14

By Le Figaro with AFP

Posted
4 hours ago
,
Update 18 minutes ago

During previous days of social movement, the administration had asked companies to give up part of their flight program departing from or arriving at certain French airports.

A union of air traffic controllers filed a strike notice for May 1 as part of the movement against the pension reform enacted in mid-April, without the consequences for traffic being known immediately. The Civil Aviation Trade Union-CGT (USAC-CGT)continues to be part of the mobilization decided by all the trade union confederationson Labor Day, she wrote in a letter announcing this notice to the director general of civil aviation.

This notice concernsthe day of May 1, 2023» et «overnight stays upstream and downstream for agents working staggered hours“, completed the USAC-CGT in this missive consulted Wednesday on its website. The USAC-CGT is at the forefront of the mobilization of air traffic controllers against the pension reform, which resulted in 34 days of strike action in the first quarter alone, according to the National Federation of Aviation and its Trades ( Fnam), spokesperson for airlines in France.

Read alsoAir traffic controllers’ strike: more than 10 million passengers affected in France

3500 flights canceled in the first quarter

Another union, the SNCTA, which claims to be in the majority among air traffic controllers, does not, however, call for a strike against this very unpopular reform and promulgated on April 15 by President Emmanuel Macron. Contacted on Wednesday, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGAC) was not immediately able to assess the consequences on air traffic of this new mobilization in the middle of the bridge weekend and Easter holidays. .

During previous days of social movement, the administration had asked companies to give up part of their flight program departing from or arriving at certain French airports, including Orly, the country’s second platform. According to Fnam, some 3,500 flights were canceled in the first quarter, including 500 “hot», without the passengers having been able to be warned in advance, synonymous with difficult situations in the terminals. For its part, the European air traffic monitoring body, Eurocontrol, estimated that 10 million passengers were affected by the strike between March and the beginning of April.

Indeed, the work stoppages of controllers affect, in addition to French airports, the air navigation en route centers (CRNA) which manage the trajectories of aircraft crossing French airspace to connect two third countries. These strikes therefore have cascading effects on all air transport on the Old Continent.