A French air traffic control strike is expected to have a significant impact on tens of thousands of travelers on Friday.
80,000 people were impacted by Ryanair’s cancellation of 420 flights, the majority of which were planned to fly through France.
Air France announced that it will only operate 45% of its short-haul flights, while British Airways canceled 22 flights and EasyJet slashed 76 flights.
Separately, the state funeral for Queen Elizabeth will change 15% of the Heathrow Airport schedule on Monday.
There will be flight cancellations, including 100 British Airways flights and 4 Virgin Atlantic flights, to keep the skies over London calm during the celebrations.
The SNCTA air traffic control union is on strike in France over a dispute over pay, as inflation climbs, and hiring.
According to Ryanair, all impacted guests have been informed. Typically, the low-cost airline runs over 3,000 flights per day.
The operations director of Ryanair, Neal McMahon, referred to it as “inexplicable” because “thousands of European nationals and visitors’ travel plans will be unfairly interrupted.”
He claimed that domestic flights within France are protected by French law, but flights over the nation are not.
In addition to the 22 Heathrow-bound flights that were canceled, British Airways warned that there might be some more delays on Friday.
Only 45% of Air France’s short- and medium-haul, and 90% of its long-haul, flights are now in service. It also cautioned that cancellations and delays could happen at the last minute.
According to the French civil aviation regulator DGAC, flight cancellations apply to all of France. To assist airlines in avoiding the nation’s air space, it further stated that it was currently collaborating with the European aviation safety agency Eurocontrol.
Summer travel around Europe was severely hampered by strikes in the airline sector, which also affected ground and cabin crew members who are asking for salary increases to cover rising living expenses amid high inflation.
At the Charles De Gaulle airport in Paris, there were many firefighter and staff strikes in July, which caused cancellations and delays.
