JOUY31

Source: Les Echos

This strike is supported by several unions: CGT, CFDT, UNSA & FO.

Another union, SNCTA, is calling for a strike from June 11th to June 13th.

irishguy28

http://www.airfrance.ie/IE/en/local/...air-france.htm

San Gottardo

Thanks for sharing the information! ^^

The same day ATC strikes will also happen in Belgium, Austria, UK, Italy, Czech Republic, Hungary, Bulgaria, Slovakia. They are protesting against the EU Commission's plans to "liberalize" ATC services.

Not a good news, but good to know about it before. Definitely throws some disorder into my week's logistics.

orbitmic

Oh $£=&%%"@!!...

San Gottardo

According to the AF website the strike actually happens from June 11 to 13th, even worse than initially thought. https://www.airfrance.fr/FR/fr/local...air-france.htm


Affected as well?

orbitmic

Yep, and as it is on late afternoon flights very much fearing the worst...

San Gottardo

Ouch.

I'll try to head home from my MidEast-Japan trip Tuesday afternoon, and then stick the rest of the week out from office/home and by train.

Lucky those who have a routing not flying over strike-participating countries. My routing NRT-ZRH avoids most but will still go smack over striking Germany. Worst is to do something like Istanbul-London, crossing Bulgaria, Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Germany, France/Belgium, UK. The "string of strike pearls".

Let's see...

orbitmic

Good luck!! It sounds like an exhausting perspective! Flying within Western Europe myself so I fear to be fair game for cancellation/long delays when people on flights like yours get (most legitimately) priority with the few atc people working. I'm also in one of the time bands usually selected by our cgt and other friends for symbolic action such as temporary total block out etc. anyway on plus point if it gets too nasty I can leave the terminal, tube back home and say "sorry I tried!" while in cases like yours one faces no choice at all.

pansted00

Here we go again. Overprotected civil servants making very good money and working a stupidly low number of hours, with absolutely no consideration whatosever to us mere mortals' daily concerns. Sometimes I wish there was a french Ronald Reagan .

San Gottardo

The DGAC has now requested airlines to reduce their flying programme by 50% for Tuesday.

Maybe I'll get priority in Europe. But I need to anticipate and change my pan for the week, I shall now probably find myself transiting in Bombay and using an ANA 737 BBJ for a flight from India to Japan

San Gottardo

I think there is a separate thread somewhere discussing the political and labour market aspects of these labour disputes. Meet you there and then I can point out to you that the strike does not only happen in France but a number of other European countries, and we can debate the question whether one needs to go to Reagan extremes or whether having a mere Schroeder or Blair would already be a good start.

I personally believe that the moderators here have taken the wise decision to limit these threads to factual information and travellers' individual anecdotes on how to deal with the disruptions. ^^

brunos

So is my family

San Gottardo

Air France allows rebooking of tickets http://www.airfrance.fr/FR/fr/local/...air-france.htm

- if new flight happens until June 16, re-booking in same Cabin (First, Business, P Eco, Eco) is free of charge
- if new flight happens between June 17 and June 30, re-booking in same booking class is free of charge, or difference has to be paid to next higher booking class
- for flight after June 30 or if you want to cancel your trip, you get a non-refundable voucher
- if your flight is delayed >5 hours, if is cancelled, or if any of the above solutions aren't suitable, ou can cancel the trip and get a full reimbursement, with the exception of service fees. You have to fill in a form for that

Not sure why they once offer to cancel the trip once against a voucher and once against a full reimbursement.

^ to Air France to inform passengers ahead of time. On the other hand I find the rebooking rules a bit stingy . Ability to rebook in same cabin only for 3 days after strike, no "train instead of plane" substitution tickets (during a recent strike which affected one of my LH flights I could rebook to any future date for free, and I could even re-book a different ticket which left from my "strike destination" a couple of days later, arguing that because of the strike I couldn't get to the departure airport in the first place, and also re-booked that to a date in five months).

------

As a further update, the strike will apparently *not* affect Germany, the UK and Ireland. Also, it seems that in those countries where the ATC strike will happen it will only be on Wednesday.

Only France has an "extended" strike from Tuesday 11 June 04h30 UTC to Friday 14 June 04h30 UTC.

metoo

I need to route through CDG from AMS to CDG, CDG to CPH on June 21, 2103. Should I be concern that my flight from CDG to CPH be cancelled or delayed? My cruise starts on June 21, 2013.

On Air France website, it stated :

- If you wish to change your flight between Monday June 17, 2013 and Sunday June 30, 2013 inclusive, the modification of your booking is possible free of charge at the same fare, according to availability, or by paying the difference with higher fare.

However , when I called Delta Airlines as I have an Awards ticket through them, Delta won't waived the $150 change fee.

Anyone think the strike will continue past 6/14/13?

San Gottardo

1) Not a problem on June 21
2) There is a thread on that topic here