Cancellations at Barcelona airport due to French air traffic controllers' strike
Around 40 flights to and from El Prat canceled as of 4:30 pm
The French air traffic controllers' strike has led to a wave of flight cancellations across Europe, including the Barcelona El Prat airport, on Friday.
As of 4:30 pm, around 40 flights to and from the Catalan capital were canceled.
These include two Transavia flights from Paris Orly and EasyJet flights from London Gatwick (two of them) as well as from Paris Charles de Gaulle, Liverpool, Nice, and Milan.
As for departures, those that have been canceled are the two Transavia flights to Paris Orly and EasyJet flights to Paris Charles de Gaulle (two of them), London Luton, London Gatwick, Liverpool, Nice, and Milan.
However, other affected companies are also Vueling, Ryanair, Iberia, and Air France.
Airport officials were unable to confirm whether all of these flights had been canceled specifically because of the industrial action in France, but said "most if not all" were due to the strike, and added that all across Spain 130 flights had already been canceled because of it.
In fact, across Europe, there have been around 1,000 flights canceled because of the strike in France. To avoid further problems, the restrictions to over-fly the UK and North Africa to travel across Europe were temporarily lifted.
This allows for planes departing or landing from Barcelona airport to avoid the French area of Marseille, which would have added more difficulties to airlines and travelers.
The strike started at 6 am on Friday and is set to end at 6 am on Saturday, and there could be further cancellations because all flights between Barcelona and other European cities except for those in Spain and Portugal must travel through French air space.
Flight status can be tracked here.