Since March, 10 million air passengers affected by strikes in France

About 30% of flights in Europe, or “more than 10 million” air passengers, have been affected since early March by strikes by French air traffic controllers against pension reform, Eurocontrol said.

According to a report by the European air traffic surveillance agency, available this Wednesday on its website, there were “34 days of social unrest” that affected air traffic in Europe between March 1 and April 9, mainly by French drivers, but also German. .

This figure compares with the five days of strike by French air traffic controllers for all of 2022, Eurocontrol stressed.

237,000 flights affected

These 34 days “had a potential effect on 237,000 flights” that left, arrived or passed through the airspace of the affected countries, “especially France”, according to the same source.

Air traffic controllers participated in the challenge of pension reform in France, forcing the General Directorate of Civil Aviation to request the cancellation of part of the movements departing or arriving at airports, but also to reduce the number of flights that they can traverse the country’s airspace.

Given the geographical position of France, these strikes had cascading effects on all European air traffic.

The 10 million affected between March and April have suffered, for the most part, delays: punctuality fell from 79.8% to 70.5% on the days of social action. But “every day of the strike, around 64,000 passengers were unable to fly as planned due to cancellations,” Eurocontrol said.

96,000 more flight km per strike day

From the same source, between March 7 and April 9, airlines suffered an average of €14 million in additional costs per day, either due to cancellations (8 million) or delays (6 million).

And to avoid French air traffic control areas, carriers flew an average of 96,000 km more per strike day, increasing fuel consumption and CO2 emissions, the organization argued.

At the end of March, the main organization of European companies, Airlines for Europe, asked the European Commission to act to protect overflights of French territory in the event of a strike by air traffic controllers, as already exists in Italy and Spain.