Paris (AFP) - A strike by French air traffic controllers brought a second day of chaos to European skies Friday, with flights for hundreds of thousands of people cancelled as the summer holiday season gathered pace.

More than 1,100 flights arriving or leaving France and hundreds that were to fly over the country were cancelled Friday, according to official figures.

Paris airports were even more severely affected than on the first day of the strike on Thursday, which was called by two unions protesting against understaffing and “toxic management”.

The timing of the strike is particularly acute with Friday the final day of school in France before the summer holidays.

At Paris airports, passengers stared at departure boards loaded with cancellations to assess their options. Some travellers appeared distraught.

Sabrina Taristas, 42, was set to fly to the southern French city of Toulouse.

“We can’t go against the strike but it’s true that it’s a real inconvenience for us travellers,” she told AFP.

The strike was due to end Friday evening and no disruptions were expected on Saturday.

France’s DGAC civil aviation authority said 1,125 flights had been cancelled on Friday, compared to 933 flights on Thursday.

French flag-carrier Air France said its long-haul flights were not affected.

The travel disruption also affected hotels.

Many travellers cancelled hotel bookings, particularly in cities with large airports such as Nice and Paris, according to the UMIH hotel and restaurant union.

“There’s a bit of panic among those arriving and those leaving, airlines are trying to rebook their customers, it’s complicated to manage and it’s going to cost them a lot,” Veronique Siegel of the UMIH union told AFP.

In the Mediterranean city of Nice, the airport said 200 trips had been cancelled on Thursday, and 220 on Friday, affecting 50,000 passengers.

The government condemned the strike.

“Choosing the day when everyone goes on holiday to go on strike at air traffic control is taking the French hostage,” Prime Minister Francois Bayrou told broadcaster BFMTV.

- ‘Unacceptable’ -

Transport Minister Philippe Tabarot said the strike was “unacceptable”.

“Yesterday and today, 272 people in our country will impact the well-being of more than 500,000 people,” he told broadcaster CNews, referring to the number of the workers on strike.

UNSA-ICNA, the second biggest labour group in the sector, launched the action to protest against “chronic understaffing”, the introduction of a clocking-in system, outdated equipment and “toxic management practices that are incompatible with the requirements of calm and safety”.

The third largest union, USAC-CGT, joined the strike but not the main SNCTA union.

The effects of the strike were not limited to France and the stoppage has triggered hundreds of cancellations of flights that fly over the country.

The European Airlines for Europe (A4E) association said 1,500 flights would be cancelled on Thursday and Friday in Europe, affecting 300,000 passengers.

A4E chief Ourania Georgoutsakou said Thursday that “the actions of a minority of French air traffic control workers” would “needlessly disrupt the holiday plans of thousands of people in France and across Europe”.

The association said the strikes caused “almost 500,000 minutes” in delays in Europe on Thursday on nearly 33,000 commercial flights.

Ryanair, Europe’s largest airline by passenger numbers, said it had cancelled more than 400 flights.

Chief executive Michael O’Leary has urged the EU Commission to protect such overflights by law in case of strikes.

“Of these 400 flight cancellations, 350 would not be cancelled if the EU protected overflights over France,” he said.

Around 30 flights at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam were cancelled while others were delayed on Friday due to the strikes, an airport spokesperson said.

“Around 30 flights have been cancelled today by airlines as a precaution,” the spokesperson said.

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