The start of the year is often favorable for travel. If you plan to fly in January or February 2024, be aware that 16,500 flights will be canceled. The reason.
Have you planned a trip to celebrate the start of 2024? Remember to check now if your journey is still valid, because thousands of flights should be canceled from January for a period of six weeks. in fact, by order of the administration, airlines are forced to reduce by 20% the number of flights originating from Roissy Charles de Gaulle, Orly, Le Bourget airports as well as Beauvais airport, between January 9 and February 14, 2024. In total, 16,500 flights will be canceled, including 4,379 flights involving the airline Air France.
Why are thousands of flights canceled at the start of 2024?
At issue: an IT update of air traffic control, which will now depend on new 4-Flight software developed by Thales. A project launched in 2011 and which should last around thirty years. Because to date, the semi-automated system dates from 1970 and is considered archaic. The objective: to take charge of more planes in circulation, optimize and streamline air traffic, while respecting the environment, justifies the government. Concretely, the flight plan trajectory will be updated in real time allowing controllers to better evaluate flight duration as well as fuel consumption. It is the Air Navigation Center (CRNA) of Athis-Mons, near Orly, which will test, during this period, the new software which should be definitively implemented at the beginning of November 2024.
In total, 150 airlines should be affected by the cancellation of these flights planned at the start of the year. “There is little chance that long-haul flights will be impacted. Many companies will reschedule elsewhere,” specifies to L’Echo Touristique Philippe Brieu, the French general secretary of the Bar (Board of Airlines Representatives). For the moment, the companies have not yet defined which flights should remain on the ground. Air France has already communicated about these cancellations of short and medium-haul flights over this period. “Affected customers are notified directly with a proposal to automatically transfer to another available flight. The company’s sales teams remain at their disposal to assist them in their efforts.”