Strike: Air traffic controller and taxi drivers may cripple French transport today

Taxi_0
Taxi_0
Avatar of Juergen T Steinmetz

The French civil aviation authority, DGAC, called Monday on airlines to cancel one in five flights as a preventive measure ahead of the air traffic controllers’ strike.

The French civil aviation authority, DGAC, called Monday on airlines to cancel one in five flights as a preventive measure ahead of the air traffic controllers’ strike.

Air France said it would operate all of its long-haul flights and more than 80 percent of its short- and medium-haul flights in France and elsewhere in Europe, but that “last-minute delays or cancellations cannot be ruled out.”

Travellers in France face disruptions on Tuesday as disgruntled air traffic controllers and taxi drivers go on strike alongside civil servants upset over shrinking purchasing power.

Noting that the controllers’ strike was coinciding with the taxi drivers’ action, the airline warned its passengers that access to Paris’s Charles de Gaulle and Orly airports, as well as those of Toulouse, Marseille and Bordeaux, could be “greatly disrupted”.

easyJet said it had cancelled 35 flights, mainly within France but also to or from Switzerland, Italy and Spain.

The controllers’ unions want to be exempted from proposed changes to how salaries are calculated, which they say would hurt their purchasing power.

They also denounce the loss of some 1,000 jobs in less than 10 years.

Taxi drivers meanwhile have a separate complaint — competition from taxi app company Uber and other non-licensed private hire cabs.

Uber continued to run the low-cost UberPOP service in France for several months following a ban imposed in January 2015, leading to a spate of violent protests by taxi unions in June.

Protesters blocked access to airports, train stations and major roads, torched cars and attacked several Uber drivers and passengers.

The San Francisco-based company finally shut down UberPOP in July after two of its French bosses were arrested and charged with “misleading commercial practices (and) complicity in the illegal exercise of the taxi profession”.

Despite the UberPOP ban, taxi dispatchers in Paris say business has shrunk 20 to 30 percent.

Call for calm

Ahead of Tuesday’s strike, the spokesman of the Taxis de France collective, Thierry Guichard, appealed for calm, saying on French radio: “We don’t want any violent protests (because) that would be counter-productive.”

But he faulted the government for failing to act on the situation and said it should “ensure respect for the regulations”.

Thousands of taxi drivers — who are also seeking compensation for their loss of market share — are expected to observe the strike across France.

About the author

Avatar of Juergen T Steinmetz

Juergen T Steinmetz

Juergen Thomas Steinmetz has continuously worked in the travel and tourism industry since he was a teenager in Germany (1977).
He founded eTurboNews in 1999 as the first online newsletter for the global travel tourism industry.

Share to...