French air traffic control strike: compensation, care and refunds for UK passengers

Checked 14 Oct 2026·11 min read

A French air traffic control strike can delay or cancel a UK flight that never lands in France: almost 60% of flights using French airspace are overflights. Compensation of £220 to £520 (EUR 250 to 600) is unlikely: the CAA lists these strikes as likely extraordinary. Care, and a refund within 7 days or re-routing, are owed regardless.

#Why does a French ATC strike cancel flights that never land in France?

Around 33% of European flights cross, land or take off in France each day, and almost 60% of those are overflights, Eurocontrol says. It concludes that French minimum service provisions “do not protect overflights”, so a UK flight to Spain or Italy can be held or cancelled without touching a French runway.

The strike of 3 and 4 July 2025 gives the scale, as context rather than evidence for any one claim: 3,713 delayed and 1,422 cancelled flights a day across Europe. Spain had 978 daily departures delayed, more than France’s 819, and 918 of them were overflights. The UK followed with 401. Among airline groups, easyJet had 407 delayed flights a day and Jet2.com 114.

Eurocontrol states its own limit: these figures “cannot be used in the context of the Regulation (EC) No 261/2004”. For a claim, what counts is the reason your airline gives for your flight.

Source: EUROCONTROL, European Aviation Trends (Edition 9), 10 Jul 2025, eurocontrol.int, checked 2026-10-14.

#How does France prepare for an air traffic control strike?

Since 30 December 2023, each French controller must declare an intention to strike “au plus tard à midi l’avant-veille de chaque journée de grève” (our translation: no later than noon two days before each strike day). The 48-hour figure often quoted belongs to a different law, for airline and airport staff.

The rule is article L. 114-5-1 of the Code général de la fonction publique, added by loi n° 2023-1289 of 28 December 2023. It covers controllers, flight-information and alerting staff whose absence would directly affect flights. They can withdraw until 18:00 that day; failing to declare carries a disciplinary sanction. By that 18:00 deadline, the administration decides whether to set a duty rota (“tour de service”).

Article L. 1114-3 of the Code des transports (2012) covers flight and cabin crew, ground handlers and other airline and airport staff. They must tell their employer “au plus tard quarante-huit heures avant” (no later than 48 hours before) joining a strike.

So when a report says controllers gave “48 hours' notice”, read it as noon two days before each strike day.

Source: Code général de la fonction publique art. L. 114-5-1; Code des transports art. L. 1114-3 — legifrance.gouv.fr (text read from DILA open data), checked 2026-10-14.

#Why are flights cancelled days in advance?

Controllers' declarations arrive by noon 2 days before each strike day, and the law lets the administration use them to inform passengers of traffic changes. In past strikes the DGAC, France’s civil aviation authority, asked airlines to cut schedules: by 20% at seven airports for 5 December 2019, and by 30% at nine airports in October 2017.

The 2023 law itself cuts no flights; “réduction du trafic” (traffic reduction) appears only in its title. The 2019 notice says the DGAC “a demandé aux compagnies aériennes ... de réduire de 20% leur programme de vols” (asked airlines to cut their flight programme by 20%) at seven airports, Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Paris-Orly among them. It names airports and a percentage, not flights, and was dated the day before the strike.

We could not verify any DGAC notice from 2025 or 2026, so this page gives no recent percentages.

From two days before a strike day, check your booking and keep any cancellation message: its date matters for the notice rules below.

Source: Code général de la fonction publique art. L. 114-5-1; DGAC notices of 6 Oct 2017 and 4 Dec 2019, ecologie.gouv.fr (read via Internet Archive), checked 2026-10-14.

#What does the minimum service protect, and what changed in June 2025?

Since 5 June 2025, French minimum service has been set as a count of control units and positions that can be open, not as a share of traffic. Décret n° 2025-491 of 2 June 2025 replaced the old rule that kept half of normal overflight capacity, and the current text gives no overflight percentage.

Article L. 114-4 of the Code général de la fonction publique lists five things to be assured “en toute circonstance” (in all circumstances). One is “le respect de ses engagements internationaux, notamment le droit de survol du territoire” (international commitments, notably the right to overfly French territory).

The decree’s annex counts units per en-route centre and time band; Paris-Charles de Gaulle, for example, keeps 5 control positions by day.

The old text required overflight capacity equal to “la moitié de celle qui serait normalement offerte” (half of what would normally be offered). Airlines challenged it and lost at the Conseil d’État on 25 April 2024 (no. 488540). It ended on 4 June 2025 and is history, not current law.

Eurocontrol says the provisions prevent a full closure but “do not protect overflights”. A report saying France must keep half of overflights running describes the rule before June 2025.

Source: Code général de la fonction publique art. L. 114-4 and R. 114-1; décret n° 2025-491; Conseil d’État no. 488540, checked 2026-10-14.

#Do you get compensation for a French ATC strike?

Probably not, but it is not ruled out. £220, £350 or £520 under UK261 (EUR 250, 400 or 600 under EU261) is owed unless the airline proves extraordinary circumstances, and the CAA lists air traffic control strikes among events “likely to be an extraordinary circumstance”. The airline must still prove the link to your flight and its reasonable measures.

The Commission’s 2024 Guidelines say strikes “such as strike action taken by air traffic controllers or airport staff, may constitute extraordinary circumstances”, as did the CJEU in Airhelp v SAS (C-28/20, 2021), persuasive only in UK courts. The CAA’s cancellations page goes further: such disruptions “are not eligible for compensation”.

Yet CAA guidance for airlines says “each case is considered on its own merits”. The airline must show it deployed “all its resources in terms of staff or equipment and the financial means at its disposal”, short of intolerable sacrifices. In TAP Portugal (C-74/19, 2020), which binds UK courts, re-routing on the airline’s own next-day flight was not a reasonable measure where an earlier flight on any airline was available.

A cancellation made after the declarations comes less than 7 days ahead, so the notice rule removes compensation only if you were offered re-routing leaving no more than 1 hour early and arriving under 2 hours late.

Ask the airline in writing what caused your cancellation; the CAA says it “will need to clearly set out why”.

Source: UK261 art. 5, 7; Guidelines C/2024/5687 §5.1-5.3; C-28/20; C-74/19; CAA pages below, checked 2026-10-14. Related: extraordinary circumstances under UK261, under EU261, strike compensation by strike type.

#UK261 vs EU261 after C-108/26

UK261 article 2(o)(b) treats as extraordinary the circumstances that “arose from the impact of an air traffic management decision and could not have been avoided even if all reasonable measures had been taken”. It sets no test of the reason behind the decision. Since 8 October 2026, the CJEU reads EU261 differently.

In C-108/26 (8 October 2026), the CJEU held that such a decision “cannot, in itself and irrespective of the reasons for it” be extraordinary; the event behind it is examined case by case. The judgment is persuasive only in UK courts, and EUR-Lex still marks its text provisional.

One question is open. If the DGAC asks for schedule cuts and an airline cancels your flight to meet them, is that extraordinary, and is the request an “air traffic management decision” under UK article 2(o)(b)? No CJEU, UK court, Commission or CAA text answers either, so we do not say such cancellations are, or are not, compensable.

As an analogy only: in Finnair (C-22/11, 2012), a carrier that rescheduled later flights after an airport strike “cannot in any way be considered to be constrained by that strike” to refuse boarding on them. It was a denied-boarding case.

Ask the airline which it was: an air traffic management decision on your aircraft, or its own choice to meet a DGAC cut.

Source: UK261 art. 2(o), legislation.gov.uk; C-108/26; C-22/11, eur-lex.europa.eu, checked 2026-10-14.

#What the airline owes you whatever the cause: care, refund or re-routing

Under article 8 of UK261 and EU261, the airline must offer a full refund within 7 days, re-routing at the earliest opportunity, or re-routing at a later date that suits you. Under article 9 it owes meals, a hotel when needed, transport to it and 2 calls or emails, even if the strike counts as extraordinary.

Extraordinary circumstances release the airline only from “compensation in accordance with Article 7”. In McDonagh (C-12/11, 2013), which binds UK courts, the volcanic ash closure did not release carriers from care.

The CAA says care is owed “no matter how long the delay lasts or what has caused it”. In its view, if the airline does not provide it, you can arrange reasonable care yourself and claim it back. Keep receipts; airlines are unlikely to refund luxury hotels or alcohol.

Most airlines re-book you on their own next flight, but the CAA says that “if an alternative airline is flying there significantly sooner” you may have the right to that seat. Ask, and note the time you asked.

Details: refund or voucher, right to care, and weather cancellations with the same split.

Source: UK261 art. 5, 8, 9; C-12/11; CAA, Cancellations, checked 2026-10-14.

#Can you book another flight yourself and claim it back?

Only as a last resort, and the only CAA statement we found concerns a different event: the NATS air traffic control failure of August 2023. On 30 August 2023 the CAA said that where airlines could not rebook people “due to the volume of passengers”, consumers could book their own flights and claim the cost back.

That was a UK failure, not a French strike, and we found no CAA page specific to French strikes, so treat it as a sign of the CAA’s approach. It set conditions: “keep every receipt and make sure your claim is not excessive”. Ask the airline first, record when it said no, and pick a comparable fare.

If the airline refuses, 2 steps are free: a formal complaint, then its ADR scheme once it has given a final reply or 8 weeks have passed. Check the wording of any travel insurance and flight cancellation cover before relying on it for strike costs.

Source: CAA newsroom, 29-30 Aug 2023; CAA, alternative dispute resolution, caa.co.uk, checked 2026-10-14.

Airline refused or ignored your claim after a French ATC strike? AirHelp (third-party claim service) takes on rejected or ignored UK261 and EU261 claims, no win no fee, and keeps a fee from any payout; the free complaint and ADR route stays open either way.

Do it yourself · freeClaim with the airline, then ADR

• Write to the airline and keep the reference
• Refused, or no answer in 8 weeks: its ADR scheme or the CAA, free
• You keep all of the compensation

Use the claim letter template →

Hand it overAirHelp takes the claim, no win no fee

• They deal with the airline for you
• AirHelp's fee is 35% of the compensation, VAT included, and nothing if the claim fails.

Start with AirHelp →Third-party claim service

General information on French air traffic control strikes under UK261 and EU261, not legal advice. For your own case, contact the CAA, Citizens Advice or a solicitor.

#Sources

• Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 as it forms part of UK law, arts. 2, 5, 7, 8, 9 — legislation.gov.uk, checked 2026-10-14.
• Loi n° 2023-1289 du 28 décembre 2023, JORF n° 0301 — legifrance.gouv.fr, checked 2026-10-14.
• Code général de la fonction publique, art. L. 114-5-1 — legifrance.gouv.fr, checked 2026-10-14.
• Code général de la fonction publique, art. L. 114-4 — legifrance.gouv.fr, checked 2026-10-14.
• Code général de la fonction publique, art. R. 114-1, and décret n° 2025-491 du 2 juin 2025 — legifrance.gouv.fr, checked 2026-10-14.
• Code des transports, art. L. 1114-3 — legifrance.gouv.fr, checked 2026-10-14.
• Conseil d’État, 25 April 2024, no. 488540 — conseil-etat.fr, checked 2026-10-14.
• EUROCONTROL, European Aviation Trends (Edition 9), impact of the French ATC strike of 3-4 July 2025 — eurocontrol.int, checked 2026-10-14.
• DGAC notices of 6 October 2017 and 4 December 2019 — ecologie.gouv.fr, checked 2026-10-14.
• European Commission, Interpretative Guidelines on Regulation 261/2004, C/2024/5687 — eur-lex.europa.eu, checked 2026-10-14.
• European Commission, COM(2017) 286, Aviation: Open and Connected Europe — eur-lex.europa.eu, checked 2026-10-14.
• C-108/26, 8 October 2026 (provisional text), CJEU — eur-lex.europa.eu, checked 2026-10-14.
• Airhelp v SAS, C-28/20 (2021), CJEU Grand Chamber — eur-lex.europa.eu.
• Finnair, C-22/11 (2012), CJEU — eur-lex.europa.eu.
• McDonagh, C-12/11 (2013), CJEU — eur-lex.europa.eu.
• TAP Portugal, C-74/19 (2020), CJEU — eur-lex.europa.eu.
• Civil Aviation Authority, Cancellations — caa.co.uk, checked 2026-10-14.
• Civil Aviation Authority, Am I entitled to compensation? - caa.co.uk, checked 2026-10-14.
• Civil Aviation Authority, Guidance on consumer law for airlines and airports — caa.co.uk, checked 2026-10-14.
• Civil Aviation Authority, Alternative Dispute Resolution — caa.co.uk, checked 2026-10-14.
• Civil Aviation Authority, Updates and advice to consumers impacted by travel disruption (Aug 2023) — caa.co.uk, checked 2026-10-14.

#FAQ

Do I get compensation if a French air traffic control strike cancels my flight?

Probably not, but it is not ruled out. £220, £350 or £520 (UK261) or EUR 250, 400 or 600 (EU261) is owed unless the airline proves extraordinary circumstances, their link to your flight and its reasonable measures. The CAA lists air traffic control strikes as likely extraordinary. Care and a refund or re-routing stay owed.

Why are flights cancelled during a French ATC strike if they do not land in France?

Almost 60% of the flights that cross, land or take off in France are overflights, and Eurocontrol says French minimum service does not protect them. In the strike of 3 to 4 July 2025, 918 of Spain’s 978 delayed daily departures were overflights. A UK flight to Spain or Italy can be held or cancelled.

Can I book my own replacement flight during a French ATC strike?

Ask the airline first. In August 2023 the CAA said that where airlines could not rebook passengers because of volume, people could book their own flights and claim the cost back. That statement concerned the NATS failure in the UK, not a French strike. Keep every receipt and keep the fare comparable.

Does the new CJEU ruling on air traffic management decisions apply in the UK?

C-108/26 (8 October 2026) held that an air traffic management decision is not extraordinary in itself; the event behind it is examined case by case. It is only persuasive in UK courts. UK261 article 2(o)(b) separately covers circumstances arising from an air traffic management decision that could not be avoided, with no reason test.