Thousands of flights scrapped as French air traffic controllers strike

Paris: Thousands of flights were cancelled in France and Europe on Thursday as a strike by French air traffic controllers over pay caused stoppages no...

Paris: Thousands of flights were cancelled in France and Europe on Thursday as a strike by French air traffic controllers over pay caused stoppages not seen in decades.

Airlines cut more than half of their normal flight schedules at Paris's two main airports Orly and Roissy Charles-de-Gaulle, with many flights in the southern city of Marseille also grounded.

Short and medium-haul flights were the worst affected, while long-haul services faced the least disruption.

Budget airline Ryanair reported 300 cancellations Thursday, and easyJet and Transavia each 200.

A total of some 2,300 flights arriving at or departing from French airports were forecast for Thursday, against 5,200 the day before, civil aviation authority DGAC told AFP.