Air traffic controllers in France are planning to strike for three days starting on Tuesday, according to the New York Times. Their counterparts in several other European countries are also planning to take limited labor action this week to protest a plan by the European Commission to accelerate integration of air traffic management systems across the European Continent.
The civil aviation authority in France has made contingency plans for if the strike occurs, asking airlines serving the airports in Paris, Lyon, Nice, Marseille, Toulouse and Bordeaux to reduce their number of flights by 50 percent between Tuesday morning and late Thursday to reduce the burden that will fall on the airports if the strikes happen.
Unions in Belgium, Hungary, Italy and Portugal, as well as other countries, have plans to follow suit if the strike in France goes forward. They will participate in work-to-rule and other symbolic actions on Wednesday, according to Koen Reynaerts, a spokesman for the European Transport Workers' Federation in Brussels, which represents more than 25,000 workers involved in managing air traffic in the region. The results of the solidarity strikes are likely to cause more limited delays in those countries.
The strikes are planned to coincide with a speech planned for Tuesday that will be given by the European Union's transportation commissioner, Siim Kallas, where he is expected to formally announce changes to European legislations to speed up the transfer of responsibility for air traffic management functions to a central body in Brussels and away from the European Union's 27 member states.
The new proposal will set stricter rules for compliance with performance-improvement goals that are aimed at lowering air traffic management fees, reducing congestion in the skies and easing the environmental burden.
Air France-KLM has said that it expects significant disruptions and has advised passengers to postpone travel plans if possible.
The European Union has been trying to unify the air traffic controls system for over a decade as part of a plan known as the Single European Sky. The law mandates that the European Union member states merge their airspace into nine "functional airspace blocs" by the end of 2012. The European Commission argues that the blocs today exist largely on paper and don't meet requirements.
"Each time you get close, it seems to move farther away," Kallas told the New York Times about the plans for the Single European Sky. "We need to boost the competitiveness of the European aviation sector and create more jobs in the airlines and at airports."
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