Pilots join air traffic controllers on strike
Hundreds of flights have been cancelled at France's Charles de Gaulle airport since air traffic controllers began their strike.
Air France pilots began a weekend-long strike on Friday, the start of one of the country's busiest holiday periods, threatening to add to the chaos in France's airports on the fourth day of an air traffic controllers' strike.
Fifty per cent of flights from Paris's Orly airport were cancelled on Friday, while at France's largest airport, nearby Charles de Gaulle, 15 per cent of services were dropped.
Four trade unions representing Air France pilots have called their members out on strike between 26 February and 1 March, in protest at the airline's cost-cutting programme for its short- and medium-haul flights.
However, the main French pilots' union SNPL is not participating in the strike, which it describes as "premature".
The pilots' strike is not expected to disrupt Air France's services any further than the air traffic controllers' strike already has.
In its latest statement, the carrier says it will operate all of its long-haul services on Friday, 85 per cent of its domestic and European services from Charles de Gaulle and 50 per cent from Orly.
The civil aviation authority, DGAC, expects air traffic to return to normal from Saturday morning.
The government made "an important overture" during talks with union representatives late on Wednesday, a DGAC official said on Friday, ahead of a meeting with Ecology Minister Jean-Louis Borloo.
Meanwhile maritime traffic was also blocked on Friday.
Dockers across France downed tools in protest at local authorities' decision to force striking workers in the western city of Nantes to return to work in order to move a cruise liner out of the city's port.
Seven ports were affected, including the two largest, Marseille in the south and Le Havre in the north-east.
However in Corsica ferry workers ended a strike that had paralysed five of the island's six ports.
Employees of ferry operators SNCM and Compagnie Méridionale de Navigation voted to return to work on Friday after four days of striking over public services.
