Because air traffic controllers are on strike, the French civil aviation authority has ordered airlines to cancel 70% of flights at Paris Orly airport on Saturday and Sunday.
According to the DGAC authority, commercial flights operating from 0400 GMT on Saturday through late Sunday will be impacted by the cancellations.
The strike occurs as the second-busiest airport in France gets ready for a huge influx of people ahead of the July 26–27 Paris Olympics. This month marks the second significant strike by air traffic controllers. The previous one resulted in thousands of flights throughout Europe being canceled.
That dispute ended with an accord between airport authorities and the main union, the SNCTA. But the second biggest labour group, UNSA-ICNA, ordered the latest stoggage saying that staffing levels were inadequate.
“The managers at Orly continue their penny-pinching and shopkeeper accounts which will quickly lead to our teams being understaffed” by 2027, it said in a statement.
The government condemned the strike.
“I deplore the behavior of some local level agents who refuse to recognise the legitimacy of a majority accord and are making passengers pay the price,” deputy transport minister Patrice Vergriete told AFP.
Surrounded by the city of Paris, Orly Airport is the second-biggest airport in the city after Roissy Charles-de-Gaulle, handling over 32 million passengers annually.
It serves as the headquarters of Air France’s low-cost subsidiary Transavia and as a hub for the national airline. Orly is the home base for over 20 additional airlines, such as TAP, Iberia, and easyJet.
The DGAC said that this weekend, only flights operating between Orly and French overseas territories would be operating as usual.
