Paris:
France’s civil aviation authority has ordered airlines to cancel 70 percent of flights at Paris Orly airport on Saturday and Sunday due to a strike by air traffic controllers.
The cancellations will affect commercial flights from 0400 GMT on Saturday until late Sunday, the DGAC authority said.
The strike comes as France’s second-busiest airport prepares for a huge influx for the Paris Olympics, which start on July 26. It is the second major strike by air traffic controllers in a month. The latter caused the cancellation of thousands of flights across Europe.
That dispute ended with an agreement between airport authorities and the main union, SNCTA. But the second largest union group, UNSA-ICNA, ordered the latest ceasefire, saying staffing levels were inadequate.
“Orly’s managers continue with their cash grab and retailer accounts, which will quickly lead to our teams being understaffed in 2027,” the company said in a statement.
The government condemned the strike.
“I deplore the behavior of some agents at local level who refuse to recognize the legitimacy of a majority agreement and make passengers pay the price,” Deputy Transport Minister Patrice Vergriete told AFP.
Orly, south of Paris, is the capital’s second largest airport after Roissy Charles-de-Gaulle and transported more than 32 million passengers last year.
It is a hub for national airline Air France and home to its low-cost subsidiary Transavia. More than twenty other airlines, including easyJet, Iberia and TAP, fly from Orly.
Only flights between Orly and the French overseas territories would continue normally this weekend, the DGAC said.
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