Strike grounds African flights, Nigeria, Europe, US passengers stranded

Staff of the Agency for Aerial Navigation Safety in Africa and Madagascar (ASECNA), which regulates air traffic control across 18 countries, stopped working on Friday because of dispute over working conditions and pay, defying court rulings and government bans barring them from doing so.

Reuters reports that on Friday, a busy one for travel, flights to and from Europe and the United States were halted, quoting Reuters’ reporters at Senegal’s Blaise Diagne International Airport and in the United States.

It added that flights inside Africa were also impacted according to airlines and passengers.

Saturday PUNCH also reports that many Nigerian travellers who were looking to fly into the country were left stranded.

A source, who was due to fly into Nigeria from South Africa told Saturday PUNCH that his flight, which should have departed the O.R Tambo International Airport, Johannesburg to Nigeria on Friday night was grounded as a result of the strike action.

“Our flight has been grounded. We’re basically stranded here,” the source said.

However,  ASECNA told customers to check airline websites for updates.

“In spite of the prohibition of the strike by all the courts … the Union of Air Traffic Controllers’ Unions (USYCAA) has launched a wildcat strike.

“We have already exhausted both administrative and institutional remedies in the management of this crisis, but we have in front of us trade unionists who are stubborn to do whatever they want,” ASECNA’s head of human resources, Ceubah Guelpina, told a press conference.

The USYCAA union said in a statement that its members would cease providing services to all but “sensitive” flights until their demands are satisfied.

Paul Francois Gomis, a leader of Senegalese air traffic controllers who were on strike, said that some union members in Cameroon, Congo and the Comoros had been arrested for participating in the strike.

Air Senegal had grounded several flights as a result of the action, Reuters reporters said. The airline could not be immediately reached for comment.

Flights to the United States, Portugal and Turkey were hit, travellers said.

On Thursday, a court in Senegal suspended the call to strike by air traffic controllers in Senegal and Ivory Coast, ASECNA said.

ASECNA said it has developed a contingency plan to allow airlines to take alternative routes when certain airports are impacted by temporary staff shortages, in case the strike should drag on.