French Strikes Force Cut in Airline Flights

The Direction Générale de l'Aviation Civile (DGAC), says all airlines must cut flights into France by 30 to 50 percent.

Car drivers queue at a gas station in Nantes, western France, on October 18, 2010. Around 1,500 petrol stations located on the forecourts of French supermarkets had run out of fuel today amid strikes against pension reform. Frank Perry/Getty Images

The Direction Générale de l'Aviation Civile (DGAC), France’s civil aviation authority, says all airlines must cut flights into France by 30 to 50 percent by Tuesday because of fuel shortages caused by nationwide strikes against raising the retirement age, AP reported.

Strikes by unions and sympathizers all across France have shut down some of the nation’s 12 fuel refineries and also the Trapil pipeline which supplies Charles de Gaulle and Orly airports outside Paris, the two largest in the country.

The DGAC says airlines must cancel 50 percent of their flights into Orly and 30 percent of their de Gaulle flights, as there is insufficient fuel to refill the planes.

French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said he would “not let the French economy be choked by a blockade of fuel,” CNN reported.

“There will not be a shortage because we are going to make the necessary decisions ... to ensure that this country is not blocked,” Fillon said on TF1 television.

However, Petrol Industries Association president Jean-Louis Schilansky warned, according to AP, that if the strikes and protests continue and truck drivers join in, “then we will have a very big problem.”