Massive Disruptions with Flight Cancellations and Delays
"Passengers Taken Hostage"
The European skies have been thrown into chaos as French air traffic controllers began a two-day strike on the 3rd (local time).
Passengers are waiting at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport on the 3rd, when the French air traffic controllers' strike began. Photo by EPA Yonhap News
According to AFP, citing sources, 270 out of approximately 1,400 controllers participated in the strike that day. The controllers launched the strike to demand improved working conditions, replacement of outdated equipment, and increased staffing.
Due to the strike, one-quarter of flights at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport and Orly Airport, which are among Europe's major hub airports, were canceled. At Nice Airport, France's third-largest airport, half of the flights were cut, while in Lyon and Marseille, 30% of flights were canceled.
After hundreds of flights were canceled in France, air traffic networks across Western Europe also experienced disruptions. Ryanair, Europe's largest airline, announced that it had canceled 170 flights that day, affecting 30,000 passengers. Michael O'Leary, CEO of Ryanair, criticized, "Once again, European families have been taken hostage by the French controllers' strike," adding, "This is totally unreasonable and extremely unfair to those who need to go on holiday."
The Airlines for Europe (A4E) association, which represents airlines from various countries, also issued a statement that day, saying, "Tens of thousands of travelers in France and across Europe have had to cancel their summer holiday plans," and "We strongly condemn the strike by French air traffic controllers." The association stated that as of 4:00 p.m. that day, more than 1,500 flights had been canceled, affecting approximately 300,000 passengers.
Even the flights that were not canceled have been experiencing a series of delays. As of 2:30 p.m. that day, the French Civil Aviation Authority (DGAC) reported that departures and arrivals in Nice and Marseille were delayed by up to 1 hour and 10 minutes. According to data from Eurocontrol, the European air traffic monitoring agency, about 31,500 commercial flights were scheduled in Europe that day, and as of 2:27 p.m., the average delay exceeded 20 minutes. Of these delays, an estimated 73% were attributed to the strike in France.
Philippe Tabarot, the French Minister of Transport, stated that the controllers' decision to strike during the holiday season was "unacceptable," and said that airlines would suffer "millions of euros" in losses.
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