French air traffic controllers vote for six day strike next week (between June 24 and 29)

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Fonte: The Telegraph

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/10914302/French-air-traffic-controllers-vote-for-six-day-strike-next-week.html

 

[t1]Thousands of holidaymakers face travel chaos due to French air traffic control strike[/t1]

French unions have voted to strike in the midst of the summer getaway, in a move which is set to bring misery to thousands of British holidaymakers

 

By Nick Collins and Harriet Alexander

5:34PM BST 20 Jun 2014

 

Thousands of British holidaymakers face delays and cancellations to their journeys next week due to a strike by French air traffic controllers.

 

Members of France’s two biggest air traffic controllers’ unions will begin a six-day walkout on Tuesday in protest at budget cuts.

 

A similar strike last June caused the cancellation of hundreds of flights, with the number of movements through French airspace cut by 50 per cent, and a further wave of industrial action in January saw 20 per cent of short and medium-haul flights in and out of Paris grounded.

 

French officials warned passengers to expect “heavy disruption” to journeys between June 24 and 29, and said a minimum of 50 per cent of scheduled flights would be maintained.

 

Skyscanner, the flight comparison site, estimates there are 354 direct flights scheduled from UK airports to France during the strike period.

 

Passengers were advised to check with their airline before travelling to the airport.

 

Tourism figures suggest that 17.1 million Britons travel to France each year, many of them during the summer, although two thirds travel by Eurostar or ferry. Official figures show that 10.4 million passengers flew between Britain and France in 2013, with 2,500 flights departing Britain for French airports during the summer period alone.

 

The first day of last year’s strike caused EasyJet to cancel 128 flights across Europe, principally to France, and Ryanair to scrap more than 200 while there were an estimated 400,000 minutes of delays across Europe as flights were diverted to other destinations.

 

Industry leaders said it was too early to estimate how many flights would be affected next week.

 

In a ballot late on Thursday more than 60 per cent of the 4,000 air traffic controllers voted in favour of the strike, which comes ahead of a June 30 deadline for France to present its budget plans for the sector over five years to Brussels.

 

The strikers are protesting against planned cuts between 2015 and 2019 that they argue will threaten the “necessary performance and modernisation needed to ensure an efficient air navigation service in France.”

 

The cuts form part of a European Commission plan, called Single Sky Europe, to reduce air navigation costs by organising airspace into functional blocks, according to traffic flows rather than national borders.

 

The strikers argue that the move will lead to the liberalisation and a “forced low-cost” ethos in air traffic.

 

The walkout, called by the SNCTA and Unsa-ICNA unions, comes amid an ongoing rail protest that is the biggest industrial action in years and has affected both domestic and international services.

 

Last week Manuel Valls, the French prime minister, described the rail walkout as “irresponsible in the country’s current state” but insisted he would not force unions to stop the action as he was “no strike-breaker.”

 

An EasyJet spokesman said next week’s strike could cause “considerable disruption and cancellations for passengers and airlines across Europe” but insisted the company would do “everything possible to minimise the inconvenience to our customers”.

 

A Ryanair spokesman said: “We are assessing the situation and are not yet certain of the level of disruption expected, but will advise our customers once we have further information.”