The French Civil Aviation Authority requested airlines on Friday to cancel 70 percent of their scheduled flights for Saturday as a precautionary measure at Paris Orly Airport, the second-largest airport in France, due to a union's call for air traffic controllers to strike over the weekend in protest of an agreement reached last month.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation in France stated, "Airlines must reduce their commercial flight schedule for May 25, 2024, from 4:00 AM to 9:30 PM GMT by 70 percent (...) at Paris Orly Airport." The government condemned the new strike, which comes a month after a salary agreement was signed with air traffic controllers.
French Transportation Minister Patrice Vergriete said, "I condemn the behavior of some local agents who refuse to recognize the legitimacy of the majority agreement, making passengers pay the price, and I call for them to be held accountable."
The second-largest union for air traffic controllers, UNSA-ICNA, which received 17 percent of the votes from controllers in the latest union elections, called for a strike to demand "enough staff." They argued that the agreement signed at the end of April between the Directorate General of Civil Aviation and the largest union for air traffic controllers in France, which received 60 percent of the votes in the latest union elections, does not solve the "staff shortage" issue expected at Orly by 2027, according to them.
The second and third unions for air traffic controllers, Usac-CGT, rejected this agreement, which included salary terms. Concurrently with the action from the second union at Orly, the third union provided a notice of strike from May 23 to 30.
