Air traffic controllers in France went on strike Tuesday, creating chaos among flight schedules, according to USA Today. Nearly half of flights at the country's busiest airports have been canceled, according to officials.
Airlines have tried to trim their schedules, with fewer flights in an attempt to cope with the three-day strike.
Approximately 1,800 flights were cut from the schedules of airlines at Charles de Gaulle, Orly, Beauvais, Lyon, Nice, Marseilles, Toulouse and Bordeaux airports, according to the Civil Aviation Authority.
"[The cancelations] are for security reasons, but also to avoid airport overcrowding," Eric Herault, a spokesman for the Civil Aviation Authority, told the Associated Press.
Air France had already canceled flights in advance of the strike as a pre-emptive preparation. As of Tuesday, more than 480 flights have been canceled, according to the flight-tracking service FlightAware.
Significant disruptions are expected, and Air France is advising passengers that have reservations for Tuesday on a flight arriving or departing in France to try to postpone their travel plans. However, for those that can't postpone travel plans, Air France is trying to find space for passengers either on its flights or with another airline.
United, Delta and American airlines have all instituted flexible rebooking policies for passengers with itineraries to or through France, warning customers about disruptions if they don't reschedule.
Air traffic controllers are on strike over a plan that would centralize control of European air space. The strike was scheduled to begin on Tuesday, the same day that the European Union's commissioner for transportation is scheduled to give a speech in Strasbourg. The commissioner, Siim Kallas, is expected to put through an initiative on claims that European air traffic control inefficiencies cost airlines and passengers almost $6.6 billion a year.
"We need to boost the competitiveness of the European aviation sector and create more jobs in the airlines and at airports," Kallas said, according to the New York Times.
Strikes are expected to follow in several other EU countries on Wednesday.
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