A surprise stoppage of French air traffic controllers this Saturday, within the protest against the pension reform of the President's government, Emmanuel Macron, has forced the cancellation of half of the flights scheduled for this afternoon at the Parisian airport of Orly.
The General Directorate of Civil Aviation (DGAC) has explained in a statement that, after verifying that there were "a certain number of strikers" in Orly, it has asked the airlines to reduce their flight schedule by 50% from 1:00 p.m. local time (12:00 GMT) during the day this Saturday.
The DGAC has recognized that, in addition to these cancellations, "disruptions and delays" are expected and has suggested to passengers who can postpone their trips and check with their airlines to find out if their routes are maintained or not and in what conditions.
In principle, when airlines have to cancel flights, they usually do so first with internal ones to avoid cancellations of international links that can cause more problems for passengers.
No other French airport has been affected by the stoppage of controllers and neither have planes flying over French airspace to and from other countries, according to a DGAC spokesman.
Several civil servant unions have formalized calls for strikes for several weeks against the pension reform. In this case, the DGAC trade union centrals had not made specific appeals for today's day, so the leadership of the controllers had not activated the minimum services device.
Orly is the second most important airport in France, after Charles de Gaulle, also in Paris. The companies that operate there fly mainly to destinations in southern European countries (such as Spain or Italy) and in general in the Mediterranean basin, as well as various French cities.
The French unions are organizing today the fourth day of mobilizations since January 19 against Macron's pension reform, which in principle essentially translates into demonstrations (some 250 throughout the country) but very few strikes.
The next one will be on Thursday, February 16, with strikes and demonstrations. The DGAC spokesman acknowledged that "it is too early" to make forecasts about possible incidents that day, which will probably be announced on Tuesday.
The leaders of the centrals have also warned that they intend to paralyze the country on March 7 if the pension bill, which aims to delay the minimum retirement age from the current 62 years to 64, goes ahead.
