French Air Strike Causes Chaos across Europe

A strike by French air traffic controllers plunged Europe into chaos.  A spokesman from the French civil aviation authority DGAC said that most of the airports in France were affected by the action.

A fifth of all flights at the main airport in Paris were cancelled and this caused widespread disruption. Paris Charles de Gaulle airport is one of the world's biggest flight facilities and it is also the base for the national carrier Air France.

At the second airport of Paris, Paris Orly airport, 50% of flights were unable to take off. But because many holidaymakers on their way to Europe had to fly over France, the disruption was widespread. Thousands of Britons holidaying in Spain had their flights delayed or cancelled as a result of the strike.

14 flights leaving from Madrid Barajas airport in Spain had to be cancelled. There were also huge queues at airports in other regions of Spain as UK tourists struggled to get back home.  Furthermore flights at John Lennon airport in Liverpool were called off when their routes were affected.

The strike only affected short and medium haul flights while long haul flights were able to leave as normal. EasyJet was forced to cancel almost a third of its flights in Paris airports.  In fact low cost airline Ryanair was so annoyed that they asked the French government to use their army to keep airports open.

A Ryanair spokesperson said: “The French government should intervene in future strikes if necessary by calling on their military to operate air traffic control".

Striking is becoming something of a habit in France and this was the third major strike to affect French airports in 2010. The strike was called by French air traffic control Unions to protest against merging them into a Europe wide system. By cutting 27 separate air traffic controls down to nine, job cuts would almost certainly follow.