Flights cancelled as French air traffic controllers protest pension reform

The French civil aviation authority asked airlines on Monday to cancel 20 percent of their flights at Paris-Orly and Marseille-Provence airports for Tuesday and Wednesday, due to a strike by air traffic controllers against pension reform. 

Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airport outside Paris. © AFP - Christophe Archambault

"Despite these preventive measures, disruptions and delays are nevertheless to be expected," the civil aviation authority said in a statement on Monday.

Requests to reduce traffic have been made almost daily for several weeks, mainly at the Paris and Marseille airports where some air traffic controllers have joined the protest movement against the government's pension reform project.

#Perturbations | Mouvement social national interprofessionnel des 21 et 22 mars 2023. pic.twitter.com/HFvSA1eKKB

— Direction générale de l'aviation civile 🇫🇷🇪🇺 (@DGAC) March 20, 2023

Public transport disrupted

At several locations across France, roads were again blocked by protesters on Monday and public transport continued to be disrupted.

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Bus traffic has been disrupted in Rennes in Brittany. In Metz demonstrators blocked the city's bus depot early on Monday morning, causing major disruption.

Tarbes-Lourdes airport in the south-west was occupied early Monday morning for more than two hours by about 300 protesters. The lights of the buildings were momentarily cut as part of an "energy saving" operation, said Jean-Maurice Darboucabe of CGT union Energies Béarn-Bigorre.

The strike entered its 14th day at the SNCF railway company where four out of five TGVs and two-thirds of local trains were running on Monday.

Traffic is still disrupted on the metro and RER network in the Paris region.

Rubbish collection is still limited in the French capital, despite the order by the Paris police chief that staff resume work.

(with newswires)