Air France Pilot's Strike
 

Just thought I should mention the possible French Pilot's strike scheduled from the 3rd of May until the 30th, in case any of you are flying on French airlines next month. As I understand it, the SNPL Pilot's union is upset about new strike notification rules and proposes to not fly during certain portions of each day during most of the month.

I am a bit concerned as we will be flying to and from CDG on Air France numbered flights during that period, but since the flights are operated by Delta as a Code-Share, I am hoping we will not be affected.

I just hope others of the Fodor's family will not get their travel too screwed up over these developments.

:-(

3 of the 4 points on which the strike notice is based have been settled since yesterday and it is expected that the final point will be settled today.

great news kerouac!! We are flying Air France through CDG to Barcelona in May.

kerouac,

Thanks so much for the information! We are scheduled to fly through CDG to Athens end of May. Could you please post again when/if you hear that the final point is settled? Many thanks!!

I will probably be massacred for pointing this out, but since the original post mentions the 'French Pilot's strike', this shouldn't be too much to worry about, as it is only one Pilot going on strike.

More to the point is that it was the 'French Pilots' Strike' involving many more than one. For people who don't care about grammar, maybe not a big issue, but there is a great difference in meaning between pilot's and pilots'. And it's useful to know the difference.

Picky, picky, picky, Carlux. My wife has a Masters in English and I get that all the time. In any case, even one pilot on strike is important to me if it happens to be the pilot on my aircraft.

Anyway, Thank you so much for the quick dash of cool water on my fevered brow, Kerouac. I owe you at least a glass of wine.

The union members will be voting on whether to strike or not this afternoon.

Strike officially cancelled at 11:00 a.m. this morning.

Thanks, kerouac, for letting us know!

A big wet kiss as well as the glass of wine, Kerouac! :-)

The whole point of a strike notice in France is to trigger negotiations to allow strikes not to happen. There is absolutely no reason to panic when you read about a strike notice for a specific profession or company -- just keep an eye on things as the date approaches. Nearly every strike in France is cancelled 24-48 hours before it is due to take place.

When I first read about the pilots' strike, I had just one second of panic, and then I thought, keep calm. The strike is not officially on until we get the word from kerouac.

Thank you, kerouac, for the update. Now I can resume packing.

Just one little détail ; it was not an 'Air France pilots' strike', but the National Pilots Association strike. Definitely not the same thing.
Glad it was cancelled though.

The confusion about that is because more than 80% of the pilots concerned are Air France pilots, obviously.

Thanks so much for the info Kerouac! We're not flying Air France to London and Paris until June 16. However, one can worry if one is not informed with all of the correct facts.

Of course I meant to say..."We're flying Air France to London and Paris".

Strikes can be so strange. I remember one time that I flew from the U.S. to London and discovered a huge strike affecting nearly all flights to Paris. All of the Air France and British Airways flights were cancelled. I saw that Air Europe (no longer exists) had a flight to Paris and asked if they would accept my ticket. They did, and I think there were about 10 passengers on the plane. People were so convinced that it was impossible to fly to Paris that it was actually very easy. I lucked out.

"Strikes can be so strange."

You're telling me!

In 2001 we flew Lufthansa from LA to Madrid via Munich. Just as we got over Greenland, the pilot announced, “Ladies and gentlemen, I am sorry to announce that Lufthansa has just announced a strike, and this is the last flight that will be arriving or departing Munich.” Fortunately he didn't just ditch the plane in the Atlantic, and when we reached Munich, we scrambled and got an Air Dolomiti flight to Madrid. Unfortunately, our bags didn't arrive for a couple of more days.

((H))

Actually our last destination was Milan. Obviously, I have Spain on my mind these days.

((H))

Carlux, I type half the time on my tiny phone keyboard and can't even find the apostrophe half the time. I just had to massacre you for pointing this out so you won't be disappointed.