French to blame for third of delayed flights

France’s strike-prone air traffic controllers are responsible for a third of all delays in the skies over Europe. A report by the French senate found the delays were costing airlines €300million (£263million) a year. It found that between 2004 and 2016, French controllers were on strike for 254 days – more than 200 days ahead of Greece, which had the second worst figure. Some planes have been forced to skirt France’s airspace.

FRANCE’S strike-prone and illequipped air traffic controllers are responsible for a third of all delays in the skies over Europe, a senate report concluded yesterday.

The delays are costing airlines €300million (£263million) per year, it found.

The report by the French senate’s finance committee came after weeks of delays due to industrial action by controllers, forcing some planes to skirt the country’s airspace.

According to the report, between 2004 and 2016, France’s controllers were on strike for 254 days. That placed them far ahead of second-placed Greece, with 46 days of stoppages. In third place came Italy with 37 days and Germany four, according to the report seen by Le Parisien.

“Every day of a strike in France has a much bigger impact on European traffic than (strikes) in other European countries,” said Vincent Capo-canellas, the senator and author of the report after a six-month study of the sector.

The report concluded French traffic controllers were quick to down tools when unhappy with job conditions but also out of support for fellow state sector workers.

The main union, UASC-CGT, said the comparison was unfair. “Switzerland posts less strike days but it also has far fewer controllers and much less traffic over there,” it said.

As well as frequent strikes, France is also in pole position for delays linked to outdated equipment, the report said.

“Our country is responsible for 33per cent of delays due to air traffic control in Europe,” said Mr Capocanellas. “In France, the control equipment is outdated,” he said, adding that maintenance costs come to €136 million per year.

Despite having pumped more than €2billion into modernising its air traffic equipment since 2011, the senator lamented: “We are way behind our neighbours.” The senate report saw no immediate prospect of improvement. All hopes are pinned on a new computer system, whose budget has exploded. Due to be installed in 2015, it is now only expected to be up and running by 2022-3.

The report warned that the situation risked getting worse given that the 4,000 French air traffic controllers have to cope with increasing traffic each year.

They controlled more than 3.1 million flights in 2017, up 4per cent from 2016 and 8.6per cent from 2015.

On a more positive note, the report found that while slow and even “obsolete”, the system was not actually unsafe and remarkably “resilient”.