Air traffic controllers present strike notice for September 15, before the Rugby World Cup

New pressure from air traffic controllers. In a press release, the SNCTA (the first union in this profession) announces that it presented “a national strike notice covering all air traffic controllers and traffic surveillance agents on Friday, September 15, 2023 from the start of the morning service until the end. of the day, end of night service”. Just before the Rugby World Cup, which takes place in France from September 20 to October 8.

The traffic controllers denounce “the silence of the DGAC (General Directorate of Civil Aviation) in the face of the inflationary situation despite the multiple alerts from the SNCTA,” read a press release.

“The national committee recalls that French air traffic control, like all European service providers, is governed by European performance plans that provide for inflationary compensation. through consequent adjustment of the canon and, therefore, of the income”, explains the SNCTA.

European airlines complain

And demand “that these mechanisms are finally duly taken into account and that the unjustifiable dogmatism of public authorities that accentuates desertion compared to their European counterparts and devalues ​​both the performance and purchasing power of air traffic controllers” is eliminated.

The union “requests a mobilization to achieve the recovery of inflation and the establishment of mandatory annual negotiations.”

The proliferation of social movements among French air traffic controllers is beginning to seriously irritate the airlines. “Since the beginning of the year, we are 23. And so it continues,” the head of Ryanair, Michael O’Leary, had launched last March on behalf of the “Airlines for Europe” (A4E) association. The CEO also periodically mocks France in this regard.

Given France’s geographical position, these attacks effectively have cascading consequences for all European air traffic: “The British go to Spain, the Germans go to Portugal, the Irish go to Italy,” illustrates Michael O’Leary.

A4E, which brings together 16 airline companies or groups, including Air France-KLM, Lufthansa and IAG (British Airways, Iberia, etc.), asks the European Commission to impose protection on overflights in the event of a strike by air traffic controllers , a measure that already exists, for example, in Italy, according to Michael O’Leary.