The strike of French air traffic controllers caused this Friday a new day of cancellations and delays in half of Europe. The strike, called by the Syndicat National des Contrôleurs du Trafic Aérien (SNCTA), affected almost half of the flights that were planned from Spain. In total, 134 of those operated from national airports or destined for them, of the 280 planned, had to be suppressed, according to data offered by Aena late yesterday afternoon.
The companies operating from Spanish airports most affected were Vueling, Volotea, easyJet and Ryanair. Iberia and Air Europa flights also had problems, which offered their passengers the possibility of changing the date of their trip or reimbursement of the ticket through a voucher.
The strike day began at 6 am on Friday and ends at the same time this Saturday. In total, a thousand flights have been canceled at the different airports in the neighboring country, half of those that were scheduled, also causing significant delays that, in the case of operations in the capital, Paris, reached an average of forty minutes. .
Not only the flights with origin and destination on French soil suffered alterations due to the stoppage in the Gallic air control. Overflight operations of its airspace were also altered, since the pilots had to opt for other alternative routes. This especially affected the airports of El Prat and Palma de Mallorca, since almost all of their flights departing for Europe have to pass through the airspace of the neighboring country.
Given this circumstance, Enaire, the Spanish air navigation manager, had to take extraordinary measures so that the impact of the strike on planned flights was as little as possible. In this way, the routes were modified to be able to border France either to the east or to the west. In the case of the Barcelona and Palma airports, the flights were able to plan their takeoff and landing using the Algiers route, in order to avoid the Marseille airspace.
The French air traffic controllers, who are demanding salary improvements due to inflation and new hiring of personnel to fill the jobs left vacant by retirement, plan to hold three new days of strike between September 28 and 30.
