NEW DELHI: The French civil aviation authority DGAC has instructed airlines to reduce flights by 70% at Paris Orly airport during the weekend due to an air traffic controllers strike.
The cancellations will impact commercial flights from early Saturday morning until late Sunday night, according to Reuters reports.
This strike occurs as Orly, France’s second busiest airport, gears up for a significant influx of passengers for the upcoming Paris Olympics, set to begin on July 26.It marks the second major air traffic controllers strike within a month, with the previous one resulting in the cancellation of numerous flights across Europe.
Although the previous dispute was resolved through an agreement between airport authorities and the main union, SNCTA, the second-largest labor group, UNSA-ICNA, called for the latest strike, citing inadequate staffing levels.
UNSA-ICNA released a statement criticizing the management at Orly, saying, “The managers at Orly continue their penny-pinching and shopkeeper accounts which will quickly lead to our teams being understaffed” by 2027. The government expressed its disapproval of the strike, with deputy transport minister Patrice Vergriete telling AFP, “I deplore the behavior of some local level agents who refuse to recognise the legitimacy of a majority accord and are making passengers pay the price.”
Orly, located south of Paris, is the capital’s second-largest airport after Roissy Charles-de-Gaulle. In the previous year, it served over 32 million passengers. The airport serves as a hub for the national carrier Air France and is the home base for its low-cost subsidiary Transavia. More than 20 other airlines, including easyJet, Iberia, and TAP, operate flights from Orly. The DGAC stated that only flights between Orly and French overseas territories would operate as usual during the weekend.
The cancellations will impact commercial flights from early Saturday morning until late Sunday night, according to Reuters reports.
This strike occurs as Orly, France’s second busiest airport, gears up for a significant influx of passengers for the upcoming Paris Olympics, set to begin on July 26.It marks the second major air traffic controllers strike within a month, with the previous one resulting in the cancellation of numerous flights across Europe.
Although the previous dispute was resolved through an agreement between airport authorities and the main union, SNCTA, the second-largest labor group, UNSA-ICNA, called for the latest strike, citing inadequate staffing levels.
UNSA-ICNA released a statement criticizing the management at Orly, saying, “The managers at Orly continue their penny-pinching and shopkeeper accounts which will quickly lead to our teams being understaffed” by 2027. The government expressed its disapproval of the strike, with deputy transport minister Patrice Vergriete telling AFP, “I deplore the behavior of some local level agents who refuse to recognise the legitimacy of a majority accord and are making passengers pay the price.”
Orly, located south of Paris, is the capital’s second-largest airport after Roissy Charles-de-Gaulle. In the previous year, it served over 32 million passengers. The airport serves as a hub for the national carrier Air France and is the home base for its low-cost subsidiary Transavia. More than 20 other airlines, including easyJet, Iberia, and TAP, operate flights from Orly. The DGAC stated that only flights between Orly and French overseas territories would operate as usual during the weekend.