Members of the SNCTA union are staging a 48-hour stoppage in a dispute over restructuring and retirement arrangements. The airlines were ordered to cut the number of flights to, from and over France by 40 per cent; on 9 April, they must cancel 50 per cent.
Thousands of British holidaymakers hoping to return from Easter trips are stranded in North Africa and the Canary Islands, from Tunisia to Tenerife, as a result of the strike. While passengers in France can find routes home by bus or rail, many travellers have no feasible alternative to flying.
Many flights encountered long delays. Aircraft were due to arrive at Heathrow long after the normal 11.30pm night curfew. A BA flight from Larnaca in Cyprus is expected to touch down at 3.10am, five hours behind schedule. Another flight with the same airline, from Marrakech to Gatwick, faces the same delay with a 4am arrival.
Ryanair, which operates more flights in Europe than any other, has already cancelled 250 departures for 9 April, and the airline warns that other short-notice cancellations may arise. The cancellation of 500 flights at a busy time of year amounts to 90,000 passengers on Ryanair alone – the capacity of Wembley stadium.
Air France said it expects to maintain its entire long-haul schedule to and from Paris tomorrow. But tens of thousands of passengers booked to fly via the main hub, Charles de Gaulle airport, will find the performance of long-haul flights is irrelevant since links to Paris from UK airports from Exeter to Edinburgh have already been cancelled.
In France, the airports at Montpellier and Metz were closed completely.
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