- Fourth French ATC strike in less than two months will affect thousands of European travellers.
- More than one million delay minutes through ATC strikes so far this year.

Thousands of European passengers will see their travel plans disrupted again tomorrow (19 May) due to another air traffic control strike in France ahead of what could be a summer of discontent. Further strikes are highly likely meaning more cancelled flights, delayed journeys, and detours across the continent. Following similar strikes in March and April, French air traffic control (ATC) will work on a reduced capacity for at least 24 hours from tomorrow morning. It will be the 46th strike day in France since 2009.

“2016 will be a record year for ATC strikes and there is nothing to stop further strike action this summer. We are shocked at yet another infringement of people’s rights. On behalf of European consumers we call on the European Commission and governments to act now and protect the rights of millions of European travellers affected by this repeated and disproportionate industrial action. They need to work to minimise the impact of strikes on passengers.”, said Thomas Reynaert, Managing Director of A4E.

The latest ATC strikes in Greece, Italy, Belgium and France in March and April caused over 2,000 cancellations among A4E members and more than one million minutes of delay (more than 16,000 hours) across all airlines operating in European airspace. In 2015 more than 10,000 flights operated by A4E members were affected by 28 days of ATC strikes in Europe causing unjustified disruption to millions of passengers.