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Hundreds of flights cancelled after Marseille air traffic strike

More than 300 flights covering France at the weekend had to be cancelled due to the latest strike by air traffic controllers.

Controllers at Marseille airport walked on Saturday and Sunday.

Travel disruption was compounded by a power supply fault which caused Le Shuttle rail services through the Channel Tunnel to be suspended for a period yesterday and delays of up to four hours

EasyJet had to cancel 208 flights passing through French airspace while Ryanair cut around 100 planned departures, with other airlines also affected.

The UK budget carrier warned of more disruption throughout the summer despite union at Air France calling off their latest wave of industrial action.

EasyJet said: “We have been advised of possible industrial action by French air traffic control throughout summer 2018.

“Unfortunately due to the nature of the strike action we may only receive notification of any possible disruption at late notice.”

The airline was forced to cancel 100 flights on Saturday and 108 on Sunday.

These included flights to and from Marseille and some which passed through Marseille airspace which were unable to be re-routed.

Ryanair said that all affected passengers had been advised of their options and had been offered a full refund, the next available flight or a transfer to an alternative flight.

A spokesman for the Irish carrier said: “As a result of this unjustified strike action, we also expect some significant delays to flights to/from/over France and we advise customers due to travel on Saturday and Sunday to check the status of their flight on the Ryanair.com website.”

Ryanair and British Airways owner International Airlines Group said last week that they will file a complaint to the European Union over France’s failure to tackle crippling strikes by air traffic controllers.

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