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STRIKES

Airports across France to cancel scores of weekend flights as strikes rumble on

Many flights operating out of French airports like Paris-Orly, Toulouse, Nantes and Bordeaux will be cancelled over the weekend due to ongoing strike action by air traffic controllers.

Published: 30 March 2023 09:16 CEST
Updated: 31 March 2023 12:34 CEST
Airports across France to cancel scores of weekend flights as strikes rumble on
Travellers look at a departure information panel (Photo by JULIEN DE ROSA / AFP)

France’s civil aviation authority, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), announced earlier this week that it had asked airlines to cancel scores of flights at French airports on Saturday and Sunday due to strike action by air traffic controllers.

“Disruptions and delays are nevertheless to be expected,” the DGAC said in its announcement, which was posted to Twitter.

The DGAC also encouraged those with travel plans for April 1st or 2nd to consider postponing their journey.

French civil aviation authorities asked airlines to cancel 20 percent of flights operating out of the Toulouse and Bordeaux airports on Saturday. 

READ MORE: Your rights on delayed or cancelled flights in France

On Sunday, the DGAC requested that 25 percent of flights at Paris-Orly airport, and 20 percent of flights at the Toulouse, Bordeaux and Nantes airports, be cancelled.

Travellers should check with their airline to see whether their flight is still scheduled, particularly prior to leaving for the airport.

Air traffic controllers have continued to strike in protest against controversial pension reform in France.

The flight cancellations for Saturday and Sunday come after numerous flights were scrapped over Thursday and Friday, with 20 to 25 percent of flights at several French airports, such as Paris-Orly, Lyon, Marseille, and Toulouse cancelled.

Industrial action has continued across several sectors, and French unions called for an 11th day of action in protest of pension reform on Thursday, April 8th. 

You can keep up with ongoing strike action in France HERE.

READ MORE: Calendar: The latest French pension strike dates to remember

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POLITICS

French left in last-ditch bid to derail pensions overhaul

France's left-wing forces and labour unions will stage another day of strikes on Tuesday to try to derail President Emmanuel Macron's pensions overhaul, insisting that the fight to thwart the changes is not over even after it became law.

Published: 6 June 2023 08:11 CEST
French left in last-ditch bid to derail pensions overhaul

Hundreds of thousands of people are expected to take to the streets across France for what will be the fourteenth day of  demonstrations since January to oppose the reform.

Macron signed in April the bill to raise the pension age to 64 from 62 after the government used a controversial but legal mechanism to avoid a vote in parliament that it risked losing.

The later retirement age, which seeks to bolster France’s troubled long-term finances, was a banner pledge of Macron’s second and final term in office, and its smooth implementation is seen by supporters as crucial to his legacy.

Parts of the overhaul, including the key increase in the pension age, were printed on Sunday in France’s official journal, meaning they are now law.

READ MORE: Protests and flight cancellations: What to expect from Tuesday’s French pension strike

Opponents are pinning their hopes on a motion put forward by the small Liot faction in parliament — broadly backed by the left — to repeal the law and the increased retirement age.

Parliament speaker Yael Braun-Pivet, a member of Macron’s party but officially neutral, was to rule on Thursday whether parliament could vote on returning the retirement age to 62.

This was removed from the Liot motion at commission level, but left-wing parties have sought to put it back on the agenda via an amendment.

‘Increase in anger and violence’

In an op-ed for the Le Monde daily on Monday, the key figures from all of France’s left-wing parties urged Braun-Pivet to allow a vote on the motion, at the risk of further unrest.

“For our fellow citizens, a new denial of democracy will only lead to increased disaffection for our institutions, which is already manifesting itself in the form of growing abstentionism, and even an increase in anger and violence,” they said.

Authorities expect up to 600,000 people at the demonstrations nationwide on Tuesday, less than half the peak on March 7th, when 1.28 million were counted by police.

In contrast to the earlier phase of the movement, only limited disruption is expected on public transport though some flight cancellations are awaited, in particular at the Paris Orly airport.

READ MORE: Which French airports will be hit by cancellations during Tuesday’s strike?

“The defeat has not been enacted,” Greens MP Sandrine Rousseau told Radio J, warning that “we will raise our voices” if the parliament vote is not allowed.

The battle against the pensions reform “will never finish”, hard-left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon told the 20 Minutes daily.

But Macron’s allies say it has long been game over for opponents of the reform, even if it remains widely unpopular with the public.

The opposition “knows very well that this motion has no future,” Prisca Thevenot, an MP for Macron’s Renaissance party, told LCI television on Sunday.

The government says the changes are essential for France’s financial health.

In April, Fitch, one of the leading credit ratings agencies, lowered its rating on France’s debt, which is approaching €3 trillion.

But France managed to avoid a new credit downgrade on Friday, when S&P Global maintained the agency’s “AA” rating.

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