Newsstand - France: 36-hour air traffic controllers strike

Four French air traffic controllers' unions have called a 36-hour strike from 7.00 pm Wednesday until 7.00 am Friday, the civil aviation authorities and unions said.

Civil aviation union USAC/CGT said only one third of flights would be assured, while the civil aviation authorities said the Paris region and southeast of the country would be worst affacted.

The strike is over the planned liberalisation of Europe's air transport
sector which controllers say would threaten safety in Europe's skies

Four unions will take part in the strike, but the country's biggest air traffic controllers' union, the SNTCA, will not take part.

It must be holiday season again http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

No, it's open season and we are the target.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Lufthansa is expecting appreciable disruption in its flight operations on routes to and from France from tonight, December 5, till Friday morning, December 7. The stoppage will presumably lead to serious interference with air traffic in French airspace. Since only about 15 per cent of normal air traffic in and over France will be operating, Lufthansa has had to cancel numerous flights from Germany to France and back. Delays are also feared on flights through French airspace to the Iberian peninsula as well as the Canary Islands and South America. Since flight diversions will also congest the airspace bordering France, traffic disruption may also occur on other routes. </font>