French Air Traffic Strike Threatens Summer Travel Chaos: Half of Flights Canceled in Southern Airports

Major disruptions in French airports this summer. The second largest union of air traffic controllers, Unsa-ICNA and the USAC-CGT union, the third largest representative organization of air traffic controllers, are going on strike on Thursday, July 3, 2025. This movement will continue until Friday. The two unions denounce insufficient staffing, as well as a "severely degraded social context" at the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGAC). "The DGAC is not providing any response to the alerts transmitted for weeks by UNSA-ICNA (structural understaffing, failed technical projects, toxic management)," the union said on Wednesday.

In a press release, USAC-CGT is demanding, among other things, "an increase in the DGAC employment ceiling which does not currently allow for anticipation of retirements," "the opening of negotiations on the territorial network of DGAC services which has been forcibly imposed," as well as "a complete overhaul of the rules of social dialogue." Due to this strike, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGAC) asked airlines on Tuesday, July 1st to give up a quarter of their flights departing from or arriving at the major Parisian airports on Thursday.

This social movement will particularly affect the airports in the south of France. Consequently, the DGAC announced a 50% reduction in flight schedules at Nice, the third largest French airport, as well as at Bastia and Calvi, in Corsica. The administration, which is seeking to match the number of air traffic controllers to the flights to be managed in order to avoid further disruptions, has also requested cancellations for 30% of flights departing from and arriving at Lyon, Marseille, Montpellier, Ajaccio and Figari, it added in a press release.

"In addition to the connections to the airports of Paris-Charles-de-Gaulle and Orly, the two largest in the country, the DGAC has required carriers to give up a quarter of their flights to Beauvais, a ’low-cost’ platform where aircraft of the Irish company Ryanair are based in particular," reports Libération. "Despite these preventive measures, significant disruptions and delays are to be expected at all French airports," the administration warned.

This strike could have a negative impact on flights between Morocco and France.