French air traffic control (ATC) strikes are having a significant impact on air travel, not only in France but also across Europe. These strikes are often a result of labour disputes and disagreements between French ATC workers and the government over issues such as working conditions, pay, and retirement policies. When strikes occur, they can cause widespread disruption to air travel, with thousands of flights being delayed or cancelled.The impact of French ATC strikes is not limited to France. Due to the country's central location in Europe, many flights from other European countries fly over French airspace. As a result, when French ATC workers go on strike, flights from neighbouring countries are often forced to divert, leading to delays and cancellations. In some cases, flights may be rerouted to avoid French airspace entirely, resulting in longer travel times and increased fuel consumption.During the period of March 1 to April 9,2023, there were 34 days of industrial action affecting air transport in Europe, with most of the strikes occurring in France but also affecting Germany to a lesser degree. These strikes had the potential to impact 237,000 flights to, from, or across the countries mentioned, mainly France.In comparison, there were only 5 days of industrial action in France for the entire year of 2022. On average, during the first three months of 2023, there were 3,300 flights taking off or landing in France each day, including 800 domestic flights, and an additional 3,700 flights passing through French airspace. This means that 30% of daily European flights could have been affected by the strikes in France.The strikes had a significant impact on air traffic in France, with almost one-third of departing flights being delayed directly as a result of the strikes. Other neighbouring countries like Spain, the UK, and Italy were also affected by the strikes, with Belgium and Portugal being the most impacted in terms of the share of departing flights affected.Strikes in France also have a severe impact on traffic in other countries, in particular its neighbours. Spain had 394 daily departing flights delayed as a direct result of the strikes, followed by the UK (209) and Italy (152). However, in terms of share of departing flights affected by the strike, Belgium was the most impacted with 20%, followed by Portugal (16%), Spain (15%) and Morocco (15%).Most of these affected flights were not flying to France but were overflying France en-route to another country. For Spain this was 88% of its affected flights (345 out of 394), whereas for the other States between 66% and 77% of their impacted flights were overflights rather than flights to France.Airlines are forced to cancel flights, rebook passengers on alternative flights or modes of transport, and pay compensation to affected travellers. In addition, airlines may have to pay for additional fuel costs and airport fees due to diversions and rerouting. The total cost of a single strike can run into the tens of millions of euros for airlines.Furthermore, the strikes also had environmental consequences, with an estimated additional 96,000km flown each strike day and an average additional 386 tonnes of fuel burnt, resulting in over 1,200 tonnes of CO2 emissions.The cost to aircraft operators due to cancellations during the strike period was around €8mn per day on average, with additional costs of €6mn per day due to delays. On a non-strike day, around 40 flights had to extend their path by at least 200 nautical miles to avoid French airspace, compared to their flight plans on March 5.Efforts are continuously made to minimise the impact of French ATC strikes on air travel. For example, airlines may adjust flight schedules or offer alternative travel options to passengers. The European Commission has also proposed measures to reduce the impact of strikes on air travel, such as requiring ATC workers to provide advance notice of strikes and implementing contingency plans to minimise disruption.Ryanair is calling for the European Union to pressure France to allow flights in its airspace during air traffic controller strikes, citing the disruption to travel for almost 1mn passengers caused by recent industrial action. The airline wants the European Commission to force France to include overflights in its definition of the "minimum service” that air traffic controllers are required to provide, even during a strike. Ryanair argues that it is unfair for passengers not travelling to or from France to be affected by a strike over a national issue.Ryanair, citing their own figures, stated that the current wave of strikes has caused 300 flight cancellations and 6,000 delayed journeys, affecting 1mn passengers, of which 80% were not flying to or from France. The airline also highlighted the additional environmental impact of having aircraft take more indirect routes to fly around the country. Ryanair's CEO and director of operations suggest that Europe's air traffic managers Eurocontrol should take over air traffic control when French controllers strike, and noted that air traffic controllers in other countries, like Spain or Greece, are still required to provide guidance to aircraft flying over their countries.
The author is an aviation analyst. Twitter handle: @AlexInAir
May 10, 2023 | 06:55 PM