Airport News
French air traffic controllers walked off the job on yesterday, grounding one flight in four across the country in a protest against EU plans for civil airspace changes.
Walkouts are expected to spread across Europe on Wednesday, but France's air controller union SNCTA cancelled a planned third day of strikes on Thursday, citing encouraging support from the French and German governments against the EU's project.
Workers are concerned that plans for a 'Single European Sky', intended to reduce travel times and costs, will adversely affect their working conditions and result in job cuts.
Countries have been slow to dismantle domestic air traffic monopolies and the Commission has threatened to sanction countries that won't comply with the plan, which aims to create a single air traffic control system for the EU.
French transport minister Frederic Cuvillier announced on Monday that he and his German counterpart had handed the European transport commissioner a memorandum asking the European executive to freeze the project, saying national authorities needed more time to adapt to the planned organisation.
BACK TO NORMAL ON THURSDAY
Around 1,800 flights were cancelled out of about 7,650 scheduled for Tuesday — nearly one in four — France's DGAC civil aviation authority said, with fewer flights to Paris, Lyon, Nice, Marseille, Toulouse and Bordeaux affected than its initial estimate of 50 percent.
Marseille airport in the south of France said on its website that it was less affected than others, with 100 flights or about a third scrapped. More than 70 flights were cancelled out of Nice airport.
Air France said it was cancelling an unspecified number of short- and medium-haul flights, but that its schedule would go back to normal early Thursday morning.
Lufthansa cancelled 170 flights to and from France because of the strikes.
Britain's easyJet said it had cancelled 35 flights to Paris, 11 to Toulouse and others to Marseille, Bordeaux and Nice.
The fallout from the strike has also affected preparations for the first flight of the Airbus A350, French transport sources said.
