June 24-27 walkout planned by Air France pilots called off

While a national French strike on June 23 could still have an adverse effect on air traffic control services, the strike by Air France pilots planned for 24-27 June has been called off. In a statement issued by Air France “The call for strike action issued by several Air France pilot unions, for the period from 24 to 27 June 2016 has been lifted on June 21 by two majority unions. Therefore, we plan to operate all our flights on those four days.”
Three unions confirmed on Tuesday, 21 June, that the management of Air France had agreed to suspend measures which would see both salary cuts and staff reductions.
This would have been the second disruption suffered by the airline – action between June 11-14 is reported to have cost the carrier €40 million (US$45.2 million). However, despite the June 21calling off of the strike, the risk still remained for last-minute delays and cancellations resulting from the national French strike. According to Air France, “The DGAC [French Civil Aviation Authority] gave instruction to all airlines not to adapt their flight schedule. Therefore, we plan to operate all our flights. Nevertheless, last-minute delays and cancellations can also be expected.”
In a statement released by Eurocontrol, “The overall estimate is a similar disruption to the last French strike, but there is more traffic expected. There is no request thus far for cancellations of flights.”
Yet another French general strike has been planned for June 28, while seven unions working for NAV Portugal have warned of two-hour air traffic control stoppages on June 30, July 8, July 15, July 22 and July 29.