Flights resume after French strike

PARIS, France -- European air travel was returning to normal on Friday after a 36-hour strike by French air traffic controllers.

The strike crippled air traffic in France for almost two days, with the Paris area and south-western France the hardest hit.

Unions called the stoppage to protest at an EU plan for a single air traffic control system for Europe.

The air controllers' union, the USAC-CGT said that one in two controllers were on strike late on Thursday. At Paris Orly airport, 73 percent of controllers were not working.

Only 10 per cent of French domestic flights were able to take off on Thursday, LCI television reported, and many international carriers had to cut their scheduled flights to and from France by a half or more.

Airlines said flights were getting back to normal on Friday but some planes were not where they were scheduled to be on Friday morning,

British Airways was forced to cancel all but four of its services to France as a result of the strike.

Passengers also were subjected to delays due to re-routing to avoid French airspace.

The European Union hopes to implement a "single sky" plan to eliminate nationally run air traffic control.

The proposal would allow planes to fly routes mapped out by logic rather than Europe's borders.

The plan's proponents say it would boost capacity by up to 50 percent, making room for more planes in the skies and at the gates.

The strike coincided with similar disruption over different issues by the country's bank workers and police officers.

French banking sector unions on Friday stuck by plans to hold a national strike, initially for one day, on January 2 as employers accused them of using the imminent arrival of the euro as a negotiating weapon.

The euro is due to go into circulation in France and 11 other European countries on January 1. With New Year's Day a public holiday in France, January 2 is the first day banks are due to be open with the euro in circulation.

Hundreds of French gendarmes took to the streets for a fourth day on Friday in an unprecedented protest aimed at wringing concessions from the government on working conditions and pay.

Several hundred gendarmes assembled at a major roundabout on the western edge of Paris for a motorised protest to the gendarmerie headquarters at the Ecole Militaire near the city centre.