Enough is Enough

On July 3 and 4, 2025, a small minority of French air traffic controllers: 272 on Thursday, July 3 and 251 on
Friday, July 4, 2025 out of a total of 3,462 air traffic controllers employed by the air navigation service DSNA,
which depends on the DGAC, the French Civil Aviation Directorate, went on strike. The result was devastating:
in France alone, 933 flights were cancelled on Thursday and 1,125 on Friday, i.e. between 25% of traffic on the
Paris platforms and 50% in southern airports such as Nice, for example. The icing on the cake is that all business
aviation flights have been cancelled. If we take an average of 150 passengers per flight, the 2,058 cancellations
impacted just over 300,000 passengers, not counting delays and customers of private flights. And not to
mention the 1,500 or so European flights forced to be cancelled because it was impossible to fly over French
territory, through which a large proportion of flights from the continent transit.

So much for the quantified damage, but it does not reflect the stress of passengers forced to stay on the
ground or that of airline and airport staff who have had to endure the understandable bad mood of their
customers without being able to take any action to resolve their situation. Of course, the date was well chosen,
it was the date when families can finally meet again after a year of separation.

The most beautiful thing is the reason for this work stoppage. For the past 2 years, controllers have had to
comply with a time clock so that their employer can ensure their presence, since the staff is also sized to move
air traffic safely. Except that until now, no one checked who was the wearer of the badges inserted in the time
clocks, which allowed all accommodations between employees who clocked in on behalf of absentees who were in charge of revenge. To mitigate what is nothing more or less than a form of fraud, the DGAC, i.e. their employer, has decided to introduce facial recognition linked to the wearer of the badge inserted in the time clock. Horror among the controllers who will no longer be able to take hours or even days of absence when they have decided themselves on the number of staff necessary to route the planned traffic. The best part of the story is that the motive of the strikers is precisely to demand additional staff.

Basically, we can’t blame employees for always wanting more, after all they have very short working weeks and
even if their profession requires particularly sustained attention and unfailing professionalism, they are not
alone in the control room and there are several of them on the same workstation in the event of an expected
overload of work. They could just as easily demand large salary increases, even if they are part of the
proportion of the highest paid civil servants, with an average salary of €5,000 net per month, which
corresponds to an average gross salary of €6,250.

In this lamentable case, what is most shocking is the laxity of the authorities. The latter are perfectly aware of
the practices that take place in the control centres and they have been turning a blind eye for years. In
addition, they are unable to organize a continuity of service with only 272 strikers present in two minority
unions out of a total of 3,462 air traffic controllers, i.e. 7.85% of the workforce. I don’t know of any company manager who puts his activity on hold for 7.85% of strikers. How can we accept this lack of authority and
management? How do those in charge accept to put 300,000 people in distress so as not to be able to
reorganize their workforce?

I am told that the controllers are untouchable and that the last time civilian control was handed over to the
military was in 1973, which resulted in a mid-air collision over Nantes. Yes, but that was 52 years ago, more
than half a century ago. Since then, technology has evolved significantly. Are we sure, for example, that foreign
German, Swiss, British or other control centres would not be able to regulate traffic to compensate for the
shortcomings of French centres? For years, Europeans have been working on a European management of air
traffic control. That would be welcome. At the time, the American controllers decided on a massive work
stoppage, but they came up against the will of President Ronald Reagan who proceeded to dismiss all the
strikers, i.e. 2/3 of the workforce. Of course, this caused a monster mess in the sky for at least 3 months, but
since 1981 and the 11,000 layoffs we have not heard of an untimely work stoppage in the USA.
The Minister of Transport, Mr Philippe Tabarot, cannot be satisfied with condemning the attitude of the
strikers in the media. Should the law be changed to stop these acts? Why not, in any case enough is enough
and let the leaders of our country take their responsibilities.