French air traffic control strike affects major airlines

Airlines and millions of European travellers expect disruptions due to the biggest French air traffic control strike since 2009

The recent 2 days French ATC strike was the cause of thousand of cancellations from passengers as well as for more than 500.000 delay minutes for companies operating in the European airspace.

The strike situation has raised conflict between the French ATC and major airlines in Europe joined under the name of “Airlines for Europe”, one of the largest airline associations on the continent, headquartered in Brussels.

Founded in 2016, the association joins big names of the air-carriers industry, such as Air France KLM, easyJet, Finnair, International Airlines Group, Lufthansa Group, Norwegian and Ryanair.

Commenting on the unjustified disruptions, Thomas Reynaert, managing director of Airlines4Europe, declared:

“Repeated and disproportionate industrial action by French ATC unions is seriously impacting the travel plans of thousands of passengers during Easter.

“It is unacceptable that airlines and their customers can be repeatedly punished by these unjustified strikes.

“We call on the European Commission to act immediately to defend consumers.

“We are currently working on an immediate action plan to minimize strike effects on both local traffic and over flights.

Last year only the ATC strikes affected millions of passengers and more than 10,000 flights operated by Airlines4Europe carriers.