Thousands of passengers in the UK have been greatly affected by a French air traffic strike action. The strike started on Tuesday 24th and will continue upto 30thJune. This has greatly affected the passengers travelling to France and it has left many passengers stranded with no option. The strike by the French Air Traffic Controllers has led to cancellation of flights causing great disruption both to the passengers and the UK airlines. The traffic control action strike had cancelled five times as many flights as expected and it was said that further cancellations are expected.
The strike does not only affect flights to and from France but it is also likely to affect other flight services over the country. As a result, people on vacation, others on important trips such as business trips and those who need urgent shipments will be greatly inconvenienced as the flights may be delayed, diverted through different routes of Europe or even be cancelled. Some of the airways refunded their customers due to the cancellation and noted that they would communicate further to them concerning the strike and they would work to ensure they minimise the impacts of the strike.
Two of the biggest air traffic control unions made a decision to put up the six-day strike which was meant to protest on cutting the budget, although one of the unions had defected from the decision to strike.
This action would also cause disruption to lorries transporting goods across Europe each day. The strike might result to hold-ups in Calais therefore causing knock-on effects in the UK with Lorries delaying in Dover and even on the M20. The freight transport in the UK had been severely affected by the lengthy action of the French transport workers in the years 1996 and 1997. Several roadblocks set up in France had left lorry drivers from UK stranded in most cases.
By Oliver Derek