More than 1,500 flights cancelled on July 3-4 due to French air traffic controllers’ strike

About 40% of flights were canceled on Friday at all Paris airports and tens of thousands of passengers were rearranging plans at the height of the summer travel season because of a strike by French air traffic controllers seeking better working conditions.Disruptions started hitting airports around France on Thursday and intensified Friday. The national civil aviation authority asked airlines to cancel 40% of flights Friday at Charles de Gaulle, Orly and Beauvais airports serving Paris, half of flights in Nice and 30% of flights in Marseille, Lyon and some other cities.
Despite the preventive cancelations, the authority warned in a statement that ″disruptions and long delays are to be expected at all French airports.”
Also Read: French air traffic controllers’ walkout disrupts early summer season travelRyanair was among airlines that announced widespread disruptions, saying in a statement it canceled more than 400 flights affecting 70,000 passengers. The company said the strike affects all its flights over French airspace, as well as traffic in and out of French airports, and urged the European Union to reform air traffic rules.

One of the two unions leading the strike, UNSA-ICNA, said in a statement there are not enough employees to handle surging air travel and that inflation is eating away at salaries. The unions also are protesting new reform measures aiming to more tightly monitor their work, prompted by a near-collision at the Bordeaux airport.Transport Minister Philippe Tabarot called the union demands — and their decision to strike just as French schools close for the summer and many families head on vacation — ″unacceptable.″

Meanwhile, a group of countries including France, Kenya, Spain and Barbados have pledged to tax premium-class flying and private jets to raise funds for climate action and sustainable development.  As many richer nations scale back official development aid for countries, even as extreme weather events increase in frequency and severity, some are looking to find new sources of financing, including by taxing polluting industries.

The announcement on the opening day of a UN development summit in Seville, Spain, was one of the first to emerge from the “Sevilla Platform for Action” that aims to deliver on the renewed global financing framework agreed ahead of the event.

“The aim is to help improve green taxation and foster international solidarity by promoting more progressive and harmonised tax systems,” the office of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said in a statement.

The initiative, which was co-signed by Sierra Leone, Benin, Antigua and Barbuda and Somalia, will get technical support from the European Commission, the Global Solidarity Levies Task Force said in a separate statement.

(With inputs from agencies)