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Air strike may affect Mipcom travel

Execs flying home from next month’s Mipcom market could face delays due to a possible air traffic controller strike.

An umbrella group of air traffic controller unions has called for its 14,000 members to strike on Thursday, October 10, the same days as many travel back from the international content market held in Cannes.

The controllers, part of the Air Traffic Controllers European Unions Coordination (ATCEUC), are protesting against the European Commission’s (EC) push to force member states to make good on their commitment to create a Single European Sky.

Through a statement on its website, the ATCEUC said: “Less than five years have passed since the adoption of Single European Sky II (SES2) and despite its overambitious targets not being reached, the EC is trying to change again the legislative framework for aviation in Europe by setting more unrealistic targets.”

The organisation also said the EC’s target of a tenfold increase of improvement to flight safety by 2020, while reducing the cost of air traffic management (ATM), was a “contradiction” and a “real danger” for the future and safety of ATM.

A spokesman for Mipcom organisers Reed Midem told C21: “We’re doing utmost to find out what impact this may have on Mipcom travel. Too soon so say yet.”

The proposed strike would mark the first time in 10 years that ATCEUC has called on all of its members across the 28 member states to strike. In June, 40% of flights were cancelled in France due to a strike over the same issue.

Mipcom runs from October 7-10 and is preceded by Mip Junior, a two-day screening and conference event for kid’s TV and multiplatform content.

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