The strike by air traffic controllers in France has led to the cancellation of almost 90 flights by various airlines at Lisbon, Porto and Faro airports, according to data available on their websites.
At Lisbon airport, 23 flights scheduled to arrive today from various French cities have been canceled, along with another 25 flights that were due to leave the Portuguese capital for France.
At Porto’s Francisco Sá Carneiro Airport, 15 arrivals from France and 14 departures to that country were canceled.
At Faro airport, there were around ten canceled flights: Five from French cities and as many that were due to depart for France.
The flights were operated by various airlines, including Ryanair, Transavia, Volotea, Vueling, Air France, TAP and EasyJet.
Thousands of flights were canceled today at French airports and hundreds of planes were grounded due to the air traffic controllers’ strike.
According to the French news agency AFP, the cancellations mainly affected short and medium-haul flights.
Around 2,300 flights are scheduled to depart or arrive at French airports today, compared to almost 5,200 on Wednesday, according to the Directorate-General for Civil Aviation (DGAC) panel consulted by AFP.
In Europe, more than 2,000 flights have been canceled and 1,000 are at risk of having to be diverted to avoid French airspace, according to airline association Airlines for Europe.
In order to match traffic with available staff, French civil aviation has asked companies to cancel three out of every four flights departing or arriving at Paris-Orly, France’s second airport; 55% at Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle, the first; 65% at Marseille-Provence (south) and 45% at all other hubs in metropolitan France.
Most long-haul connections, however, escaped cancellation, with the DGAC’s order applying only to planes making “three or more movements” during the day.
