A “Black Thursday” was planned in French airports… But the majority union among French air traffic controllers announced, this Wednesday, April 24, the lifting of its strike notice for Thursday, a movement which promised to be massively followed .
“An agreement has been reached, the SNCTA is lifting its notice,” explained the organization in a short message on its website, following a “last minute” conciliation with the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGAC). Contacted by AFP, the administration did not immediately confirm this information, while two other unions, Unsa Icna and Usac-CGT, had also called for a strike.
An overhaul of air traffic control
The SNCTA, which gathered 60% of the votes of air traffic controllers in the last professional elections, has not communicated details on the crisis exit protocol. He was protesting against the accompanying measures, particularly salary, for an overhaul of French air traffic control. To bring available staff and traffic into line, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGAC) asked airlines to cancel a majority of their flights on Thursday.
This proportion was to rise to 75% at Paris-Orly, the second French airport, and 65% at Roissy, the first, and Marseille. It was to be 60% at Toulouse and Nice, and 50% for the other airports.
No information had filtered through late Wednesday morning on the operational consequences of the lifting of the SNCTA’s notice, which predicted “record mobilization” for Thursday.
He explained to his members on Wednesday that “given the extremely short deadline linked to this last minute conciliation, each controller can cancel his prior declaration, despite the deadline of 6:00 p.m. the day before the day having passed”.
If the DGAC’s initial scenario for Thursday had materialized, tens or even hundreds of thousands of travelers would have risked having their flights canceled. According to the manager of Paris airports, Groupe ADP, Roissy welcomed 203,000 passengers on Monday and Orly 111,000. These two airports account for around half of the total attendance at French airports.