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French air site visitors controllers are keen on occurring strike. And so they quite like doing so at quick discover. So guess what occurred when the French parliament final week (November 15) handed a invoice saying air site visitors controllers should give not less than 48 hours’ discover earlier than occurring strike? Nicely, they went on strike, for the 62nd time this yr.
That’s an astonishing file, amounting to roughly one strike day for each 5 regular days. In probably the most complete research accessible, analysis commissioned by the US Senate discovered that between 2005 and 2016, French air traffic controllers (ATC) walked out 249 times. The Greeks and Italians went on strike for 44 days and 34 days respectively throughout that very same interval.
And in the event you suppose your vacation plans are blissfully unaffected by the grumbling French, suppose once more. It’s onerous to place an actual determine on the variety of British holidaymakers whose flights have been cancelled, delayed or rescheduled resulting from French ATC strikes since 2005, however we’re actually a determine within the tens of millions. The disruption is available in many kinds.
The primary is that your French vacation could possibly be hit. When French ATC go on strike, the French Civil Aviation Authority usually asks airways to chop between 20 and 25 per cent of their flights to and from quite a lot of French airports. In the course of the newest walkout on November 20, easyJet grounded not less than 10 flights, BA reduce greater than 20 flights and Ryanair mentioned greater than 10 had been affected.
The French strikes additionally, inevitably, result in knock-on delays throughout the continent. Figures launched in August by Eurocontrol, the physique that coordinates air site visitors throughout Europe, revealed that French air traffic control walkouts increased the number of delayed flights on the continent by 36 per cent. The strike motion this yr has largely been centred across the protest towards president Emmanuel Macron’s plans to raise the pension age. Not that you just give two hoots about that, when gazing a departures board, questioning why your flight from Gatwick to Malaga has an enormous crimson “cancelled” subsequent to it.
And therein lies probably the most irritating matter for British holidaymakers: when French air site visitors controllers go on strike, “overflights” are hit too. Which means that many (however not all) flights departing from London to Spain, for instance, which depend on a flight route over France, find yourself being cancelled, delayed, or having to take prolonged detours to achieve their vacation spot – one thing that Ryanair’s chief executive Michael O’Leary described as a “scandal” earlier this year.
Following this week’s walkout, a Ryanair spokesman mentioned: “It’s utterly unacceptable that there have been 65 days of ATC strikes this yr (13 instances greater than in all of 2022) which have precipitated the cancellation of 1000’s of flights at quick discover, unfairly disrupting EU passengers’ journey plans.
“France unfairly makes use of Minimal Service Legal guidelines to guard French flights whereas forcing cancellations on overflights from Germany, Spain, Italy, Eire, and the UK. We’ve got no drawback with French ATC unions exercising their proper to strike, however the EU Fee ought to insist that cancellations resulting from French ATC strikes are allotted to French flights, not these overflying France en route to a different unrelated EU vacation spot,” the Ryanair spokesman added.
A Ryanair petition to “hold EU skies open” obtained more than 100,000 signatures on change.org, and Eurocontrol mentioned in an October 2023 paper that permitting continuity in overflights throughout ATC strikes can be useful to community site visitors.
It wouldn’t be truthful accountable this yr’s flight disruption solely on French air site visitors controllers. On Sunday, Heathrow cancelled 60 flights due to high winds and staff absence. And certainly there have been myriad causes. Wildfires within the Mediterranean hit flights throughout the summer season, the conflict in Ukraine has led to a squeeze within the accessible airspace in Europe. In the meantime pilots and airport workers have staged walkouts in Belgium, Italy, Portugal and Spain. And chances are you’ll do not forget that our personal air site visitors management unit, Nats, experienced an IT meltdown over the August bank holiday.
However this yr, and for a few years now, French air site visitors controllers have been a constant thorn within the aspect of British air passengers. And their strikes don’t solely trigger inconvenience. They price us cash. Between 2018 and 2022 (which was, keep in mind, a decreased interval for air journey), French strike motion price airspace customers €624 million, in accordance with Eurocontrol. The strikes additionally have an effect on the surroundings. Throughout that very same interval, airways flew an additional 3,343,908 nautical miles resulting from French ATC strike motion, amounting to an additional 66,876 tonnes of Co2 emissions being pumped into the environment.
So will disruption simmer down in 2024? Not precisely. The prevailing French air site visitors management system dates from the Seventies and nonetheless depends on paper strips to symbolize incoming planes (no marvel they’re reluctant to enter work), so the whole system might be overhauled within the first two months of 2024. An estimated 16,500 flights are anticipated to be cancelled, and overflights can even, inevitably, be hit. In complete, as many as 2.5 million passengers flying to Europe could possibly be hit. However, in the long run, this might be an excellent factor for the consistency of flight companies across the continent.
And we’ve additional trigger for optimism. The most important ATC union, SNCTA, has known as a so-called “Olympic Truce”, promising no extra walkouts till after the video games on September 8 2024. There’s a clearing within the clouds. For a interval, possibly, your holidays will solely have wildfires, IT meltdowns and conflict to cope with. Bon voyage.
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