French air traffic controllers on strike

PARIS, April 8 (UPI) -- Plane flights across Europe were disrupted Wednesday by a strike of air traffic controllers in France.

The SNCTA union called a two-day strike over working conditions, and although 60 percent of Air France's medium-trip flights from Paris' Charles de Gaulle Airport are operating, only about a third from Paris' Orly Airport remain scheduled. Long-haul flights will continue as scheduled, Air France said.

Hundreds of flights from points in Europe to France were grounded.

A spokesman for Eurocontrol, the agency that oversees air traffic control in Europe, said, "Typically there would be about 4,000 over-flights (airspace over France). Some of these are still happening but obviously people are re-routing around as much as possible."

Part of the labor conflict involves attempts by management to raise the air traffic controllers' retirement age from 67 to 69, the French civil aviation agency said. Additional strikes are planned for upcoming weekends, coinciding with French school holidays.