French air traffic controllers' strike leads to dozens of cancelled flights

Travellers face disruption as Ryanair and easyJet scrap some flights to French airports and warn of delays to other destinations
EasyJet plane
EasyJet cancelled 50 flights to and from airports including Paris Charles de Gaulle, Paris Orly, Bordeaux, Lyon, Marseille and Toulouse. Photograph: Steven May/Alamy

Thousands of travellers are enduring flight disruption due to a one-day strike by French air traffic controllers.

Ryanair axed more than 70 flights, while easyJet cancelled more than 50 services because of the action, which started at 5am UK time on Thursday and was due to end at 7pm.

Both carriers said they had been asked by aviation authorities in France to reduce their French flights by 30%.

EasyJet said: "We will cancel at least 50 flights to and from Paris Charles de Gaulle, Paris Orly, Basel, Bordeaux, Lyon, Marseille and Toulouse.

"The strike will also impact all flights that over-fly French airspace. More than 60% of our flights operate through French airspace and so there is a risk of delays and late-notice cancellations depending on the scale and effects of the strike action.

"Therefore, flights from the UK to destinations such as Spain, Portugal, Italy, Cyprus, Greece and north Africa face the threat of disruption."

A number of the Ryanair cancellations involved services within continental Europe, but the axed flights also included some between UK and Irish airports and French destinations including Paris, Biarritz, Nimes, Carcassonne, Bezier and Bergerac.

Some Ryanair services to and from Girona in Spain were also cancelled.

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