The SNTCA, the main French air traffic controllers union, announced on Wednesday that it had lifted its strike notice from three days at the end of september after finding an “agreement” with his supervisory ministry.
End of the conciliation in the ministry: an agreement was finally reached, the SNCTA lifts its notice,” the National Union of Air Traffic Controllers, the majority among air traffic controllers, wrote in a brief message on its website.
The SNCTA did not provide further details, promising a “news release to follow.” Attempts to contact its national office were unsuccessful on Wednesday at noon. Asked by AFP, the Ministry of Transport could not immediately confirm the end of this social conflict, nor specify the general lines of a possible agreement to put an end to it.
The SNCTA, mobilized by a salary increase in a context of high inflation, as well as by an acceleration of hiring to anticipate a wave of retirements, had called a strike from September 28 to 30, after a first day of action last Friday.
The latter had led the General Directorate of Civil Aviation (DGAC) to ask airlines that operate flights to or from French territory to preventively cancel 50% of their program, that is, a thousand aircraft movements.
In all, the strike resulted in the removal of “more than 2400 flightsin Europe of an expected 31,000, air traffic watchdog Eurocontrol said on Monday.
From the same source, other aircraft movements suffered significant delays, of the order of 45 minutes for each trip over French territory. The main airline association, Iata, considered “welcome that French air traffic controllers have canceled their next strikes.” , in a message posted Wednesday on his Twitter account.
“Friday’s unnecessary strike has caused delays, cancellations, increased costs and CO2 emissions,” Iata told airlines, urging the European Union to establish the “single European sky.”
This reform, initiated almost 20 years ago but struggling to succeed, aims to move from a system of routing dependent on national borders to a coherent zone where aircraft trajectories would approach a straight line, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, saving time and money.
Source: BFM TV
