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French strike strands air travelers

Passengers line up to check in at Terminal 1 at London's Heathrow Airport, Wednesday, as air traffic controllers in France and other nations launched a strike in protest over a planned scheme to change the management of Europe's airspace. PHOTO: AP

Travellers were stranded at airports across France yesterday at the beginning of what looks to be a number of turbulent weeks for the European transportation industry, whose workers are striking in protest over plans to unify the continent's airspace.

The massive strike, which started at 6am and was to end at 11pm , was expected to disrupt 7,700 flights in France alone, the civil aviation authority said.

The total includes flights that use French airspace but do not land or take off in France.

Apart from the full-day walkout in France, air traffic controllers were to observe shorter work stoppages in Greece, Portugal, Italy, the Netherlands and Hungary, the authority said.

Travel agents in Taiwan said that people travelling to Europe during the peak holiday season wouldn't necessarily be affected by the action, but that agents may have to do `some re-planning of package tours in light of the disruption.

The strike by French air traffic controllers resulted in the cancellation of 90 percent of the country's flights yesterday.

"We can say this strike call has been massively supported."

Edith Tartry, spokeswoman for French air regulator DGAC

"We can say this strike call has been massively supported," said Edith Tartry, spokeswoman for French air regulator DGAC.

The air traffic control unions fear that a plan to redesign Europe's airspace around flight corridors rather than sovereign nations will oblige them later to compete for contracts and might lead to privatization, thus affecting their jobs.

Proponents of the so-called "single sky" initiative argue that the creation of air zones based on the busiest routes will make the system more efficient and allow air traffic control services to adapt safely to expected growth in traffic.

Jeffery Guh (顧文宗) of Taipei's Famous Travel Service Co (世貿旅行社), which organizes business trips to Europe, said his firm's operations wouldn't be seriously affected `as most of the major trade fairs that attract Taiwanese aren't until the end of August or September.

Jimmy Chang (張金明), president of Phoenix Tours International Inc (鳳凰旅行社), said that while the strike would seriously affect air travel within Europe, many of their tours only included single-country packages or those only traveling to a few countries.

"Europe's long-haul coach service has improved greatly in recent years so we can utilize these services during the strike," Chang said.

Air France Tuesday warned that 90 percent of its short and medium-haul flights would probably not run on Wednesday, and airport officials said a large proportion of travellers didn't bother to turn up at airports.

Out of 660 flights at Paris Orly Airport on Wednesday, only 77 were functioning while at Roissy Charles de Gaulle Airport, between 200 and 250 out of 1,500 flights were maintained, the DGAC said.

In other disputes, airline and other transport workers in Greece kicked off strike action on Tuesday in a walk-out to oppose government pension reform plans, forcing national airline Olympic Airways to cancel 31 flights, and in Germany, Lufthansa AG said it would cancel five of roughly 40 roundtrip flights to France.

Spanish unions have called a general strike for Thursday against planned government labor market reforms, a day before European Union leaders meet for a summit in Seville.

Italian national airline Alitalia said it was cancelling 50 flights on Wednesday, forcing 8,000 passengers to change their travel plans. Swiss flag carrier Swiss is calling off most of its French flights.
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