The French Civil Aviation Authority asked airlines on Friday to preventively cancel 70 percent of their flights scheduled for Saturday at Paris Orly Airport, the second airport in France, due to a union of air traffic controllers calling for a strike at the end of the week in objection to an agreement reached last month.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation in France said, “Airlines must reduce their commercial flight schedule for May 25, 2024 from 4:00 to 21:30 GMT by 70 percent (…) at Paris Orly Airport.”
The government denounced the new strike, a month after signing an agreement regarding salaries with air traffic controllers.
French Transport Minister Patrice Vergrette said in an interview with Agence France-Presse, “I denounce the behavior of some agents at the local level, who refuse to recognize the legitimacy of the majority agreement, and make passengers pay the price, and I call for them to be held responsible.”
The second union of air traffic controllers, UNSA-ICNA, which received 17 percent of the observer votes in the recent union elections, called for a strike to demand “an adequate number of employees.”
She considered that the agreement signed at the end of April between the General Directorate of Civil Aviation and the largest union of air traffic controllers in France, which won 60 percent of the observers’ votes in the recent union elections, does not solve the problem of “staff shortage” that looms in Orly by the year 2027, she said.
The second and third unions of air traffic controllers, Usac-CGT, rejected this agreement, which included an agreement on salaries.
Coinciding with the action of the second union in Orly, the third union submitted a notice of strike from May 23 to 30.
#percent #flights #canceled #Orly #Airport #due #employee #strike