The main union of French air traffic controllers announced on Wednesday that it had lifted its three-day strike notice at the end of September. This decision comes after an “agreement” was reached with his supervisory ministry.
“End of conciliation at the ministry: an agreement finally found, the SNCTA lifts its notice”, wrote in a brief message on its website the National Union of Air Traffic Controllers (SNCTA), majority among air traffic controllers. The SNCTA did not give more details, promising a “press release to follow”. The Ministry of Transport was unable to immediately confirm the end of this social conflict or to specify the outlines of a possible agreement to put an end to it.
The SNCTA, mobilized for a salary increase in a context of high inflation, as well as for an acceleration of recruitment in order to anticipate a wave of retirements, had called for a strike from September 28 to 30 after a first day of action last Friday. The latter had led the General Directorate of Civil Aviation (DGAC) to ask airlines operating flights departing from or arriving on French territory to preventively cancel 50% of their program, i.e. a thousand aircraft movements. planes.
The debate on the “single European sky” in the background
In total, the strike resulted in the cancellation of “more than 2,400 flights” in Europe out of the 31,000 planned, the air traffic monitoring body Eurocontrol said on Monday. From the same source, other movements of aircraft suffered significant delays, of the order of 45 minutes for each trip overflying French territory.
The main association of airlines, Iata, considered “welcome that French air traffic controllers have canceled their next strikes”. “Friday’s unnecessary strike caused delays, cancellations, increased costs and CO2 emissions,” Iata said. The organization also called for “an end to the cycle of hostage-taking by airlines” and urged the European Union to set up the “single European sky”.
This reform, launched almost 20 years ago, but which is struggling to succeed, aims to move from a traffic organization system dependent on national borders to a coherent zone where the trajectories of aircraft would approach a straight line, reduction of greenhouse gas emissions as well as saving time and money.