Europe’s largest airlines and hundreds of thousands of passengers have been left in limbo despite the French SNCTA union withdrawing its notice of strike action at the eleventh hour. Airlines still do not have full clarity this afternoon of what French ATC capacity will be tomorrow, meaning there will still be significant disruption for flight operations and passengers.
In advance of the strike, airlines had been forced to cancel more than 2,000 flights, the majority of which would have landed or departed from France. Another 1,000 flights would have had to divert away from French airspace causing further delays and disruption.
The strike was set to be one of the largest ATC strikes in years and comes after 2023 saw 16,000 flight cancellations, 85,000 delayed flights and 20 million passengers being impacted due to ATC strikes.
This illustrates why A4E’s call for a passenger protection proposal at EU level remains critically important for providing certainty and predictability for airlines across Europe. The proposal would see:
• a legally binding requirement for arbitration with unions ahead of strike action;
• a 21-day notice period ahead of strikes;
• 72-hour confirmation of employee participation in strikes; and protection for overflights over countries affected by ATC strikes, without impacting flights flying to and from the country affected