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Huge disruption to flights, despite French air traffic controllers calling off strike

Travellers are braced for massive disruption on Thursday with around half of flights in and out of France cancelled, despite air traffic controllers calling off their strike at the last minute. Budget airline Ryanair says that it has also been forced to cancel 300 flights passing over France.

Published: 24 April 2024 10:51 CEST
Updated: 25 April 2024 08:13 CEST

Huge disruption to flights, despite French air traffic controllers calling off strike

Air traffic controllers have called off their strike. Photo by BORIS HORVAT / AFP

The SNCTA union had called a 24-hour strike on Thursday, April 25th in a dispute over changes to working patterns.

The strongly supported strike was set to cause huge disruption, but on Wednesday morning the union announced that last-minute talks had been successful and “an agreement has been reached”.

The SNCTA strike notice for Thursday has now been lifted, but disruption is still likely on Thursday, especially at Paris airports.

It is expected that 75 percent of flights in and out of Paris Orly airport will be cancelled and 55 percent of flights at Paris Charles de Gaulle.

‘75% of flights cancelled’ – which airports are worst affected by Thursday’s disruption?

In addition to cancellations of flights in and out of French airports, the budget airline company Ryanair announced that over 300 of their flights set to fly over French airspace would also be cancelled.

Ryanair said that around 50,000 passengers would be affected in some way, and the most disrupted flights would be those flying over France to get from the UK to Greece, Spain, and Italy.

The disruption is due to the last-minute nature of the strike cancellation, combined with the fact that smaller unions which had also filed a strike notice could still go ahead with Thursday’s walk-out.

People with flights booked for Thursday should check with their airline for possible delays or cancellations.

The SNCTA had also threatened to file strike notices over the May holiday weekend – on May 9th, 10th and 11th – but after reaching an agreement with management, the union withdrew its strike notice for these dates.

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Thunderstorms, floods and traffic: France’s last holiday weekend in May

Monday, May 20th is a holiday for most of France, marking the Christian festival of Pentecost, which means that many people will enjoy a three-day weekend.

This is the last of four public holidays in France in May 2024, now we need to wait until August for another extra day off work (since the Fête National on July 14th falls on a Sunday this year).

So what can we expect for the long weekend? Well, bad weather and heavy traffic, unfortunately.

The Moselle département, in north-east France, was placed on red weather alert on Friday after hours of heavy rain caused flash flooding.

The red weather alert initially runs until 9pm on Friday, with between 80mm and 100mm of rain expected, while between 70mm and 90mm are predicted in the far north of the neighbouring Bas-Rhin, with up to 70mm expected further south – figures national forecaster Météo-France said approached records for daily rainfall figures in the region.

Orange alerts in the area remain in place on Saturday.

Image: Météo-France

Rain and occasional storms, some bringing hail, are expected to develop across large parts of the country throughout the weekend, with only the Mediterranean areas likely to remain dry on Saturday.

Showers and sunny spells will continue into Sunday and Monday, with occasional thunderstorms in the south-west. Temperatures throughout the weekend should rise to between 15C and 22C.

To make family getaways on the final long weekend of the month even more difficult, roads watchdog Bison Futé predicts ‘difficult’, or ‘very difficult’ travel conditions on key routes across the country.

Image: Bison Fute

On Friday, traffic is expected to be heavy on routes heading away from major cities towards popular holiday destinations until well into the evening – especially on Paris’s Périphérique and the A86 and A6B, the A7, along the Mediterranean Arc and on the Atlantic seaboard (A11, N165 and A63).

The A13 is likely to remain closed to traffic between Paris and Vaucresson across the holiday weekend, so drivers from the Paris region wishing to reach Normandy are advised to take the A14, A15 or N12

On Saturday, May 18th, conditions on the roads will be difficult nationwide, particularly on roads serving the Mediterranean arc (A7 and A9) and the Atlantic coast (A63 and N165). In the Île-de-France region, traffic will be heavy from early morning onwards on the A6 and A10. From mid-morning onwards, traffic is expected to intensify significantly.

Image: Bison Fute

Routes converging on the A10 and A6 could also see traffic problems on Saturday, Bison Futé warned.

No major forecastable traffic problems are expected on Sunday – but, on Monday, May 20th, short breakers will be returning home, leading to heavy traffic across the country, notably on A7 and A9, in the Mediterranean region, and routes serving the west of the country.

Traffic will be heavy on the A10 and A6 in the Île-de-France region from late morning into the evening. The A13, which should be open, could also experience traffic problems from mid-afternoon onwards, and could continue to do so well into the evening.

Across the country banks and public administration offices will close. Some independent shops may close, while larger stores and chains are more likely to be open, but probably with altered opening hours.

Most bars, restaurants and cafés will remain open while public transport will run as normal.

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