On Monday October 9, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGAC) asked airlines to give up 40% of their flight schedule on Friday at Paris-Orlythe second French airport, due to an inter-professional strike relayed by an air traffic controllers union.
Carriers have also been called upon to reduce their flight schedules at Marseille-Provence by 20% and at Beauvais by 15%, the DGAC said in a press release, warning that the activity of air navigation centers en route, which manage aircraft circulating in French skies, would also be affected.
“From Thursday October 12, 2023 in the evening until Saturday October 14, 2023 at 6 a.m., air traffic will be disrupted on departure and arrival at Paris-Orly, Marseille-Provence and Beauvais airports”added the DGAC in its press release. “Despite (…) preventive measures, disruptions and delays are nevertheless to be expected »underlined the DGAC, which invites “passengers who can do so to postpone their trip and contact their airline to find out the status of their flight”.
“Wage inequalities” at the DGAC
The union that called for a strike is the Civil Aviation Union-CGT (USAC-CGT), a minority among air traffic controllers but already at the forefront in the spring in the mobilization against pension reform. Among the points defended by the USAC-CGT is the fact that “DGAC agents are starting to be impacted by the reform”. The organization also noted “more and more inequalities at the DGAC, particularly in terms of salaries” and criticized “the blasting of the public aviation service”.
This notice comes a month after the first union of air traffic controllers, the SNCTA, committed to respecting a “Olympic Truce”that is to say not to strike between now and the end of the Olympic and Paralympic Games planned in France during the summer of 2024.
Numerous days of strike by French air traffic controllers at the start of the year, during the conflict over pensions, led the DGAC to ask airlines to preventively cancel part of their flights.