Tens of thousands of passengers face another day of travel hell amid French air traffic control strikes... as chaos hits Eurostar and UK airports

Daily Mail​

2 days ago

Thousands of British holidaymakers have had their travel plans disrupted after nearly 200 flights were cancelled due to striking workers in France.
Budget airline Ryanair slashed more than 160 flights because of French air traffic control strikes, affecting over 30,000 passengers.
Cancellations that took place across today which will continue on into tomorrow impact flights to and from France, but will also affect planes flying over the country.
On Thursday, chaos also erupted on the Eurostar as travellers flooded social media with complaints they had been left stranded at terminals with delays of up to four hours.
All trains from London St Pancras to Paris were cancelled die to a fire on the track.
But the railway company came under fire from furious holidaymakers as they claimed Eurostar had entered a social media blackout, after not responding to their queries.
'Stuck on a hot, cramped 13.31 train from St Pancras to GDN. Absolute s***. Awful comms from Eurostar. Stuck at Haute Picardie, a station with nothing around. Unable to get off the train. We were meant to arrive 3 hours ago,' wrote one angry passenger.
'Can we please get some proper information at Gare du Nord? Your live departures online and departure boards here are showing wildly different information and there is nothing forthcoming here at all. Wildly over-crowded and over-heated and no info at all,' said another.
Passengers carry their luggage at Roissy Charles-de-Gaulle Airport in Paris today
One more added: 'Still NO information from anybody at @EurostarUK. Train now 90 mins late and all communications out of date. Customer service must have gone home and left all their customers in the lurch'.
On Thursday Ryanair chief executive Michael O'Leary renewed calls on EU Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen, to take 'urgent action' to reform European Union air traffic control (ATC) services in light of the disruption.
Mr O'Leary said: 'Once again, European families are held to ransom by French air traffic controllers going on strike.
'It is not acceptable that overflights over French airspace en route to their destination are being cancelled/delayed as a result of yet another French ATC strike.
'It makes no sense and is abundantly unfair on EU passengers and families going on holidays'.
What to do if your flight is cancelled
Travel experts said delayed passengers should check their insurance policy to see if it covers them for such events – although they are unlikely to be able to claim compensation from the airline.
Alvaro Iturmendi, Confused.com travel insurance expert, told MailOnline: 'If you are due to fly in this region over the next couple days, the best thing to do is to keep up to date with your airline, as they'll issue any announcements of delays or cancellations.
'And even if your flight looks unaffected, it's always best to still leave plenty of time to get to the airport in case of any delays or queues.
'As these strikes are from airport staff, it's unlikely you will be able to claim compensation for any delays or cancellations as a result. But if your travel insurance policy covers you for such events, then you may be able to reclaim any costs this way.
'Check your travel insurance policy to see if it covers strike-related delays or cancellations, especially if the strikes were announced before you bought your ticket.'
Some 15 Ryanair flights arriving at or departing from London Stansted Airport were cancelled earlier today while others have been axed at Manchester and Edinburgh.
Hundreds of flights operated by other airlines have been cancelled in France today, with the strike by two French unions also affecting air traffic across western Europe.
In France, half of all flights in Nice and a quarter of flights at Paris Orly and Paris Charles de Gaulle airports, one of Europe's busiest hubs, have been cancelled.
Tomorrow, the situation is expected to become even more tense at Paris airports and Beauvais, where the DGAC has ordered a 40 per cent reduction in the number of flights.
Easyjet said it would cancel 274 flights today and tomorrow, while Air France adapted its flight schedule and British Airways was using larger aircraft to mitigate disruption.
Lufthansa reduced its schedule for the two days, affecting some flights in and out of Nice, Paris, Marseille, Lyon and Montpellier airports – while Luxair warned that 'additional delays and schedule changes are possible across other destinations'.
Disruption is expected to worsen tomorrow on the eve of the start of the European summer holidays, which is one of the busiest travel periods of the year.
French air traffic controllers launched the two-day strike today to protest understaffing and 'toxic management'.
One passenger, Nadia Rivet, a 51-year-old bank employee, told AFP: 'We're trying to stay positive, there are worse things, but it's annoying.'
She was planning to spend six days in the French capital but her flight from the south-western city of Pau was cancelled this morning.
'Everyone has the right to strike, but it's punitive. Air traffic controllers aren't the worst off,' Ms Rivet said, adding she hoped to have more luck tomorrow.
Other passengers tried to take the disruptions on the chin.
'Striking is a right,' said Carol Jelic, a 66-year-old Canadian travelling to Stuttgart told AFP at Paris CDG. 'We can't lose that right. But it does inconvenience.'
Eric Nouen, a 60-year-old travelling to Montpellier from French Guiana, a region of France in South America, said he was not going to complain.
'Right now, everyone could go on strike. Everyone has a reason right now.'
Ryanair has long-campaigned for an overhaul of ATC services across Europe.
It wants the EU to ensure ATC services are fully staffed for the first wave of daily departures, as well as to protect overflights during national ATC strikes.
'These two splendid reforms would eliminate 90 per cent of all ATC delays and cancellations, and protect EU passengers from these repeated and avoidable ATC disruptions due to yet another French ATC strike,' Mr O'Leary added.
Also today, easyJet said it had made 124 cancellations in advance for today and are making 150 cancellations in advance of tomorrow, across its European flight programme. This is out of 1,857 flights planned to operate today.
An easyJet spokesman told MailOnline: 'The national strike action by French air traffic controllers today is impacting all airlines operating to and from French airports and using French airspace.
'As required by the French authorities (DGAC) easyJet proactively cancelled some flights in advance and customers were contacted directly with options to transfer to another flight for free or a refund.
'As this action could result in further disruption to airline's flying programmes, we advise all customers travelling on July 3 or 4 to check the status of their flights on our Flight Tracker online for the most up to date information. While this is outside of our control, we will do all we can to minimise the impact of the strike action.
'On behalf of our passengers we are extremely unhappy with the strike action, particularly given the current performance of French ATC which has been the leading cause of airspace delays in Europe this summer.
'Long term solutions must be found for our customers and crew who suffer repeated disruption.'
And a British Airways spokesman said: 'Like all airlines, due to industrial action by French Air Traffic Control, we've had to make some adjustments to our schedule.
'This is outside of our control, and we've apologised to our customers for the disruption to their travel plans. Our teams are working to get our customers to their destinations as quickly as possible.'
France's second-largest air traffic controllers' union, UNSA-ICNA, launched the action to demand better working conditions and more staff.
The union is protesting 'chronic understaffing', the planned introduction of a clock-in system, outdated equipment and 'toxic management practices that are incompatible with the requirements of calm and safety'.
'The DGAC is failing to modernise the tools that are essential to air traffic controllers, even though it continues to promise that all necessary resources are being made available,' UNSA-ICNA said in a statement.
'The systems are on their last legs, and the [air traffic control] agency is constantly asking more of its staff to compensate for its difficulties.'
It was joined by the third largest union, USAC-CGT, which said the DGAC had failed to comprehend the frustration felt by controllers.
The DGAC did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the trade unions' concerns.
Their complaints echo grievances expressed by air traffic controllers in the US over outdated infrastructure, dramatic staffing shortfalls and failing technology.
Transport Minister Philippe Tabarot called union demands 'unacceptable' and said carriers would lose 'millions of euros' as a result.
'Constantly choosing dates that will cause the most inconvenience to passengers does not seem to be the right approach,' he said today.
The main air traffic controllers' union, SNCTA, had no plans to join the strike.