Paris Orly air controller strike sparks mass cancellations

The French civil aviation authority said Friday it had ordered airlines operating at Paris Orly airport to cancel 70 percent of flights ahead of a weekend air traffic controller strike.

The cancellations will affect commercial flights scheduled between 0400 GMT and 2130 GMT on Saturday, it said in a statement.

Flights between Orly and French overseas territories would be allowed to operate normally, it said.

The stoppage comes only a month after a massive air traffic controller strike affecting several French airports that ended with a deal between the civil aviation authority and the biggest air traffic controller union, the SNCTA.

But the second-biggest union, UNSA-ICNA, said staffing levels were still 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.

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UNSA-ICNA and the third-biggest sector union, USAC-CGT, have both rejected the deal signed late last month, which also included concessions on salaries.

The April strike led to the cancellations of thousands of flights in France and across Europe.

Orly, located to the south of Paris, is the second-biggest airport serving the French capital after Roissy Charles-de-Gaulle.

It is a secondary hub for national carrier Air France and the homebase for its low-cost subsidiary Transavia.

More than 20 other airlines, including easyJet, Iberia and TAP, fly out of Orly, which processed more than 32 million passengers last year, according to airport association UAF.

Source: AFP