FOOTBALL fans were left panicking after more than 200 flights were cancelled due to the latest air traffic control (ATC) strike in France.
Supporters travelling to Lyon for the Euro 2016 semi-final between Wales and Portugal have been caught up in the disruption caused by the 13th such strike in the past 14 weeks.
More than 200 flights to, from and over France were cancelled on Tuesday with others set to be delayed, according to Airlines for Europe (A4E), a lobby group representing carriers such as easyJet, Ryanair and British Airways' parent company IAG.
Four flights into Lyon airport were grounded, including an easyJet service from London Luton to Lyon.
Matt Jones, from London, has tickets for Wednesday night's match in the city and was not informed of the cancellation until 11pm on Monday.
He said: "It led to an hour or so of panic trying to make other arrangements.
"There were no alternative flights and most of the Eurostar journeys were fully booked.
"Luckily, we were able to find two train tickets but it has cost us an extra £210, plus it means a full day of travelling today."
Although Mr Jones is an England fan, there is no question about where his loyalties will lie on Wednesday.
"Definitely we'll be cheering on the Welsh," he said.
Ryanair cancelled 102 flights on Tuesday.
Kenny Jacobs, the Dublin-based carrier's chief marketing officer, said: "These unacceptable French strikes have become weekly events by now, aimed at causing maximum disruption for families and business passengers."
A spokesman for easyJet, which cancelled 46 flights, assured passengers that "it will do everything possible to limit the inconvenience of this strike".
He added that passengers on cancelled flights have been contacted by email or text message.
British Airways would not confirm its number of cancellations, but issued a statement which read: "We once again urge the French government and the trade unions to resolve their issues so that customers can go on their holidays and business trips without these frequent threats of strike action hanging over them."
A4E hosted a summit of airline bosses in Brussels last week to demand that Europe's skies are kept open during ATC strikes.
They want unions to be required to engage in binding arbitration to resolve disputes, for European ATCs to be allowed to manage flights in other countries' airspace during strikes and protection for international flights over a country whose ATCs are on strike.
According to A4E there have been 213 days of disruption in Europe due to ATC strikes since 2010.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article