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Airtraffic Control stikes threaten summer holidays in Mallorca

Disputes over single European Airspace may threaten record summer holidays in Mallorca

featured in News & reviews Author James Fisher, Mallorca Video Reporter Updated

Son San Joan Airport in Mallorca has posted record traffic so far this year with 2.5 million people using the airport in the last month alone. Visitors to the Mallorca Airport had increased by 6% and according to ANEA this level was a “historic record”.

However French air-traffic controllers went on strike earlier this week causing 128 Easyjet flights and 200 Ryan Air flights, across Europe, to be cancelled and there are fears that there will be more countries joining the French strike action.

The strikes have begun over a dispute over the proposed “Single European Sky”. Currently the skies over Europe are split into 27 separate sectors but there are plans to reduce this number to 9, consolidating European Airspace and possibly privatising some areas of the industry.

There are about 27,000 flights a day across Europe and according to the European Commission some of these are controlled by traffic management systems designed in the 1950's. The plans to create a Single European Sky would mean more direct flight paths and aim to make the skies above Europe more efficient.

The EU Transport Commissioner Siim Kallas has said that the current system is costing airlines and customers 5 Billion Euros a year and that on average most flights take routes that are 42km longer than necessary. With Europe's air traffic expected to grow by 50% in the next twenty years the Commissioner has called for the Single European Sky to be implemented as soon as possible to ease congestion, reduce Carbon emissions and increase safety.

But the French have argued that the regulations are being forced on them without resonable negotiation. French Transport Minister Frederic Cuvillier said France and Berlin were seeking a formal postponement of the airspace plan at the next European summit.

"The plan to create a single European sky is a worthy goal that France initiated, but it has to take into consideration national interests, notably, our history of civil aviation," Cuvillier told RTL radio. "This regulatory harassment isn't corresponding to the human side of things, which takes time."

With Mallorca looking forward to a record 12.8 million visitors between June and September this year disruptions to the flow of air traffic would be most unwelcome and condemnation has already been made by the International Air Transport Association and Ryan Air who called for a ban on the right to strike for Air Traffic Controllers saying:

“It is unacceptable that the skies over Europe are repeatedly closed or flights are delayed by the unjustified strike action of tiny numbers of air traffic controllers, these public servants are among the most overpaid and protected in Europe and yet they repeatedly opt for the strike weapon as a first, rather than a last resort.”