Severe European air traffic strike planned tomorrow

Tuesday, 18 Jun, 2002 0

Industrial action planned by European air traffic controllers tomorrow is expected to cause severe disruption to flights over Western Europe.

Air traffice controllers in France, Italy, Greece, Portugal and Hungary are planning to strike from midnight Tuesday to midnight Wednesday.

The Eurocontrol Central Flow Management Unit in Brussels, which is responsible for carrying out air traffic flow management operations throughout Europe, said the form and duration of the strike will differ from state to state and will be decided at a national level. It said: “There is expected to be an impact on the normal traffic flow leading to delays and cancellations of some flights.”

A spokesperson for the UK National Air Traffic Services (NATS) told TravelMole that UK air traffic will not be affected by the strike. UK Domestic flights, transatlantic flights, flights to Ireland will therefore remain as scheduled.

However, the spokesperson said that since France is one of the countries where air traffic controllers will be striking, its central position could mean there will be major disruption to services throughout Western Europe.

Travellers to Western Europe are being advised to contact their airline to find out how the airline’s services will be affected by the strike.

Air France said there will be no flights between UK, Ireland and France on the 19th of June. The airline said it is currently working on contingency plans, however it forecasts that all of its operations will be affected during the day of the strike and the day after.

British Airways has cancelled most of its 126 flights in and out of France from midnight Tuesday to midnight Wednesday.

Only four services will be able to operate as normal. They are:

BA303 departing Paris 0740 local time, arriving London Heathrow at 0805 local time
BA341 departing Nice at 0820, arriving London Heathrow at 0925 local time
BA328 departing London Heathrow at 2055, arriving Paris at 2305 local time
BA352 departing London Heathrow at 2015, arriving Nice at 2310 local time

BA said it is possible that there may be some additional impact on flights which overfly French airspace, possibly affecting some services to and from Italy, Greece and Portugal.

British Airways said it will either re-book its customers affected by the cancellations on the next available flight or offer British Airways vouchers to the value of their tickets.