One in two flights departing or arriving at the Paris-Orly airport was canceled this Saturday afternoon, due to the unexpected strike of air traffic controllers, who are challenging the French government’s pension proposal.
“Taking into account that several strikers are observed in the Orly air navigation organization”, the General Directorate of Civil Aviation (DGAC) “asked the airlines to reduce their flight planning by 50% from 1:00 p.m. ” (12:00 in Lisbon), the management said in a statement.
The other major airport in the Paris region, Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle, is not being affected by this stoppage, as well as the air navigation centers that accompany the planes that are already flying over French territory, the DGAC assured.
According to airport sources cited by Agence France-Presse, these cancellations accounted for “25 arrivals and 22 departures” of planes in Orly, mainly on national routes and with countries in the Schengen zone.
In recent weeks, hundreds of thousands of French people have demonstrated in the streets against the reform of the pension system proposed by President Emmanuel Macron.
The Government’s proposal is already in the National Assembly, but Minister Elisabeth Borne has already warned that the increase in the retirement age, currently at 62 and that it could evolve to 64 or even 65, “is not negotiable.”
Source: TSF
