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Air and rail misery for thousands of passengers
Passengers heading to Europe from today could be hit by severe delays and cancellations due to strikes by both French air traffic controllers and the country’s rail operators.
Air traffic controllers walked out this morning and won’t return to their desks until Friday, prompting the cancellation of hundreds of flights from the UK to France.
Services to other destinations that fly over France are also likely to be delayed.
And all French domestic rail services will be severely reduced from tomorrow evening when workers on the national rail service SMCF start a strike at 20:00. It will last until 08:00 on Friday.
Eurostar said its cross-Channel services should not be affected, but passengers transferring on to connecting services in France could be hit. Passengers have the option of exchanging their ticket for an alternative date within two months.
All airlines using French airports have been asked to cancel 50% of their services over the next three days due to the air traffic control strike which began at 06:00 today and is due to last until 05:59 on Friday.
British Airways said there were ‘significant’ cancellations affecting Charles de Gaulle, Orly, Nice, Lyon and Toulouse airports.
Customers travelling today and tomorrow have been advised to contact BA to discuss alternatives but it was still assessing flights for Thursday.
The airline is looking at putting on larger aircraft due to its extensive French network.
A BA spokesman said: "Not only will there be cancellations to French flights but due to the large geographical area that France spreads, there will be delays across Europe."
EasyJet said cutting 50% of services would see 128 flights cancelled each day.
It said all passengers due to travel on cancelled flights will be advised via e-mail and a list is also available.
French airports used by easyJet include Bordeaux, Marseille, Lyon, Orly, Charles de Gaulle, Toulouse and Nice.
The ‘no frills’ airline said passengers on cancelled flights are able to receive a refund or transfer to another flight via easyjet.com but strongly recommended that passengers re-booking wait until the strike period has finished.
Ryanair, which has cancelled 102 flights today, repeated its call to the EU to ban air traffic controllers from striking.
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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