brunos

Thanks for the clarification.

I understand your point about planning. My impression was that strikers had to declare themselves 48h before the strike, so DGAC should have a fairly precise estimate. But it maybe that ATC are exempt from that rule. I can also understand that even knowing the number of strikers cannot allow to precisely estimate how many flights will need to be cancelled (with 5 ATC centers, etc..)

My past experience is that AF announcement of expected cancellation was always optimistic, furthermore delays can be very long. I can understand the reason if it is a busy travel periods with very full flights.There will be delays and the situation is difficult to manage for an airline, even though they have plenty of staff and frames available. Better to have a few more cancellations on the strike day than have too many scheduled cancellation while the flights could be operating (again that is on busy days)..

Porcepic, I have a question as you seem expert on this topic. All airlines were asked by DGAC to cut 30% of their flights. Airlines like BA certainly did. How can AF schedule so few cancelled flights (all LH, most MH and 73% of SH operating) if they are following that DGAC?

Porcepic

This rule is indeed not applicable to ATC. There must be a "global" declaration by unions at least 5 days before the planned strike, but there is no individual mandatory declaration 48h before the strike as for other staff in the transportation sector ("loi Diard"). On the other hand, ATC can be requisitioned to ensure a real minimum service that does not necessarily exist in other sectors (50% of flights in peak time and 2/3 during off-peak).
As a consequence, the DGAC can not have a precise estimation of the number of strikers beforehand (just an estimation based on its long experience ), hence the mis-evaluations that can happen from time to time.

I have not read the precise demand from the DGAC this time but I understand it was focused on some specific airports (and CDG was not or at least less concerned). The DGAC indeed knows the various "sensibility" of the major unions in each airport and can adapt its demand to airlines. For instance, it is known that the major union at ORY is more prone to following general strikes across the public sector than the major union at CDG.

That may explain why the impact on AF flights was more focused on SH (a big part being operated from ORY). Other airlines, and especially low-cost airlines, could have decided to preventively cancel some of their flights to French airports to avoid any risk of delay that would impact their whole planning for the day (it does not cost a lot to cancel a flight in such conditions, pretend it is due to the ATC strike and refusing to pay any compensation to pax)...

brunos

Many thanks for the detailed clarification.