Article from BTNews 30 JUNE 2014
French strike chaos (again!)
French air traffic control staff held Europe to ransom once again last week as they began yet another round of industrial action. This is the fourth such strike in the last twelve months.
Just prior to the start of the strike Ryanair called on the French Government and the EU Commission “to prevent thousands of Europe’s citizens having their flights cancelled or delayed by a small number of French air traffic controllers.”
Most UK airlines were forced to cancel flights due to the strike and passengers faced long delays as the action affected flights to, from and over France.
Ryanair again called on the EU Commission to remove the right to strike from Europe’s air traffic controllers. The airline said these controllers were “once more attempting to blackmail ordinary consumers with strikes” and urged the French Government & EU to intervene.
Many of Europe’s police forces and army personnel are not allowed to strike, while air traffic controllers in the USA are also prevented by law from striking, meaning the skies over the US cannot be closed or severely disrupted by ATC strikes or work to rule. Ryanair called for the European Commission to apply similar no strike rules here in Europe.
An airline spokesman said: “Alternatively, the EU should open up the skies over Europe and allow neighbouring ATC providers such as the Irish, British, German or Belgian ATC to keep the skies over France open while French ATC workers go on strike every summer.”
OUR READERS' FINEST WORDS (All times and dates are GMT)
All comments are filtered to exclude any excesses but the Editor does not have to agree with what is being said. 100 words maximum