Paris Orly facing massive cancellations and new strikes

France’s civil aviation authority ordered airlines to cancel 70 percent of flights at Paris Orly airport on Saturday and Sunday due to a strike by air traffic controllers.

The cancellations will affect commercial flights from Saturday at 04:00 GMT until late Sunday, the DGAC said.

The strike comes as France’s second-largest airport prepares for a massive influx for the Paris Olympics, which begin on July 26. This is the second major strike by air traffic controllers in a month. The latest caused the cancellation of thousands of flights across Europe.

This conflict ended with an agreement between the airport authorities and the main union, the SNCTA. But the second largest union group, UNSA-ICNA, ordered the latest strike, saying numbers were insufficient.

“The managers of Orly are continuing their accounts of robbery and trade which will quickly lead to an understaffing of our teams” by 2027, we indicate in a press release.

The government condemned the strike.

“I deplore the behavior of certain local agents who refuse to recognize the legitimacy of a majority agreement and make passengers pay the price,” Deputy Transport Minister Patrice Vergriete told AFP.

Orly, south of Paris, is the capital’s second airport after Roissy Charles-de-Gaulle and last year transported more than 32 million passengers.

It is a hub for the national airline Air France and the home base of its low-cost subsidiary Transavia. More than 20 other airlines, including easyJet, Iberia and TAP, take off from Orly.

Only flights between Orly and the French overseas departments would operate normally this weekend, the DGAC indicated.