Air traffic controllers’ strike forces cancellations at Paris airports for 4th day running

French air traffic controllers strike for 4th day

PARIS — A strike by French air traffic controllers disrupted flights for a fourth consecutive day Friday, and it was made worse when some Air France pilots walked off the job to protest the airline’s cost-cutting measures.

The pilots’ strike was called Friday by several small unions. An airline official said it probably would not cause many disruptions beyond those sparked by the air traffic controllers’ strike. Air France, however, decided to cancel 10 percent of its medium-haul flights for Saturday.

France’s civil aviation authority says the walkout has forced the cancellation of half the flights at Orly airport south of Paris and 15 percent of the flights at Charles de Gaulle airport north of Paris.

Long-haul flights out of Europe made up most of the canceled flights at Charles de Gaulle, while at Orly the strike mainly affected domestic and European flights, a spokesman for the airports authority said.

The air traffic controllers are upset at a Europe-wide restructuring plan that would jeopardize their status as public servants. Their walkout began Tuesday is to end Saturday morning.

Meanwhile, a strike by dockers on Friday snarled maritime traffic in French ports, including the heavily trafficked ports of Marseille and the English Channel city of Le Havre.

The dock workers were protesting the decision by local authorities in the western city of Nantes to force striking workers there to return to work in order to move a cruise liner out of the city’s port.