Passengers arrive on foot at Roissy-Charles de Gaulle Airport on 1 July
Highlight
- Aviation authorities canceled 17 percent of flights from Paris airports on Friday morning
- Another 14 percent were canceled on Saturday
- Passengers of canceled flights were alerted a few days before their flights
Paris airport witnessed massive chaos on Saturday (local time) after at least 1,500 bags were trapped following a technical snag. As per the details, the Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris suffered a technical snag that caused 15 flights to leave without baggage, leaving about 1,500 bags on the ground, the airport operations company said.
The airport handled around 1,300 flights in total on Friday, the operator said.
Union activists said many more passengers took off without their bags, apparently due to the knock-on effect from the original breakdown.
It comes as airport workers are on strike at French airports demanding more hiring and higher wages to sustain high global inflation. Due to the strike, aviation authorities canceled 17 percent of flights from Paris airports on Friday morning and another 14 percent on Saturday.
Passengers of canceled flights were alerted a few days before their flights.
The Charles de Gaulle view on Saturday was busy, but typical for the first weekend of July, when France’s summer travel season begins.
The unions plan to continue the strike on Sunday but no flights have been canceled so far. They have threatened to resume the strike at the end of next week if no agreement is reached in talks with the company management.
Until now, French airports were largely spared from the chaos recently seen at airports in London, Amsterdam and some other European and American cities.
Airlines and airports that have cut jobs during the depth of the COVID-19 crisis are struggling to keep up with rising demand as travel resurfaces after two years of virus restrictions.
(with inputs from AP)
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