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Impact on transport of ongoing political disputes and strike actions

Just a heads up for those affected.
There will be a General Strike on the 7th of March 2023.
https://www.businesstraveller.com/bu...d-for-march-7/

en français:
https://www.leparisien.fr/economie/r...2MNURJOEIE.php

Any idea of the impact? I’m flying YYZ/CDG/VCE on the 7th arriving on the 8th, so dependent on the inbound from CDG making it.

Update: I tried to get a reroute via AMS and avoid the potential mess but was told nothing is posted on their system yet for a waiver, so it would be a voluntary change at a cost. The agent advised just keeping an eye on the app. If they post an alert, I would be eligible for a a free involuntary change.

I am guessing since this is a general strike, also French ATC will suffer, meaning that any route over French air space will be affected. Let’s see!

Quote:

Aérien

Pour le moment, le syndicat USAC CGT, qui représente les personnels DGAC y compris les contrôleurs aériens, n’a pas relayé l’appel à la grève.
Il est préférable de vérifier régulièrement son site internet car il s’était impliqué dans la plupart des précédentes journées de mobilisations.

In general, many long haul flights tend to be retained duing strikes (but could be delayed), but nothing is guaranteed. Other services can still be impacted (gate agents, baggage handling, security, border controls or meals)

Quote:

Originally Posted by wysiwyg (Post 35048982)

Just to add that this is a renewable (reconductible) strike which may last beyond March 7th. The unions have had multiple individual days of actions in January and February where they tried to limit the impact to the public. Now, according to the media, they want to kick it up a notch and some are calling for “shutting down the country”. No one knows how this will materialize. If you speak French or have a translator, I recommend this site which provides updated info as well as useful links: https://www.cestlagreve.fr

In general, many long haul flights tend to be retained duing strikes (but could be delayed), but nothing is guaranteed. Other services can still be impacted (gate agents, baggage handling, security, border controls or meals)

Thanks for the info, we will keep an eye on those sites. My wife is bilingual, so I will task her with this. I've also found the list of current waivers online at Policies Detail (afkl.biz), which is the AF/DL site for travel agents and watch that for the official word.

My concern is that we only have 90 minutes in CDG, so even a short delay on the outbound flight from CDG to YYZ will cause a misconnect. There are seats on the KL flights that will get me to VCE at virtually the same time but my last call to KL said there would be a CAD$16000 change fee as a VOL change.

Given the impact of the strikes in Jan and Feb were very limited (most impacts were at Orly where it was 20%-40% domestic cancellations), I wouldn't overreact until final word is out 24-36h before the actual strike. That's when AF/KLM will annouce any commercial gestures.

I am flying as well on March 7th to JNB and was pretty confident until I read this article this morning

https://www.tourmag.com/Greve-7-mars...G_a117655.html

I also guess that it's almost impossible to get any visibility more than 48 hrs before the flight

DGAC has asked airlines to reduce their flights on 7/8 March by 20/30%. It could get worse.
https://www.lemonde.fr/economie/arti...3935_3234.html

Airlines are requested to cancel 20% of flights at CDG on March 7th and 8th:

https://www.tourmag.com/Greve-7-mars...e_a117695.html

Air France has posted a Voluntary Change Policy on their site for Travel Agents: https://image.email.afkl.biz/lib/fe9...FR_02mar23.pdf

Unfortunately, the KLM agents I am talking with (Messenger and Phone) insist that unless it is on the airfrance.ca site they can't do anything and the change fees still apply.

Update: There is a message on the website:

https://wwws.airfrance.fr/en/informa...lash-alerte-lv

Quote:

Originally Posted by jerry_greece (Post 35058000)

Ah, what are they waiting for? Until it's 24h before? I am thinking of canceling my through-CDG flight on AF (once they offer the option) and book another alternative but don't want to end up with 2 bookings

Yep, they are telling me to wait until Monday and see if the flight is cancelled :-(

flight cancellations started, already got 2/2 flights canceled, both to CDG. no messages for my flights departing CDG, but I changed the tickets straight after the cancellation.

Quote:

Originally Posted by straniero (Post 35058826)

flight cancellations started, already got 2/2 flights canceled, both to CDG. no messages for my flights departing CDG, but I changed the tickets straight after the cancellation.

Long haul ?