About one quarter of Air France pilots are striking to demand better working conditions, the latest challenge to travellers and France's image as it host's Europe's biggest sporting event, reports FRANCE 24.
Weeks of strikes and demonstrations over the country's labour reforms and other industrial disputes have led to panic at the pumps, violent protests in the streets and, most recently, garbage rotting in the gutters. It's a litany of headaches which some Parisians fear will scare away visitors.
"I'm telling you, France has become a very ugly country," Françoise Cuip, 60, told a reporter in Paris' well-heeled 16th district. "It's my country, but that's the way it is."
French leaders had hoped to put the disruption behind them as the country turned its attention to the European Championship soccer tournament, which is expected to draw over two million visitors, but unions are planning to keep up the airline and trash strikes through Tuesday.
Up to a fifth of flights are cancelled Saturday, Air France said, both domestic and international. Among those affected were flights carrying spectators to cities holding matches.
French train drivers have also been on strike for days; France's SNCF rail company was disrupted in the south-east, with cancellations possible. In Paris the rail link between the capital and Charles de Gaulle Airport was disrupted, with few trains running along the usually busy route.
Meanwhile garbage was piling up uncollected because of a continuing strike and blockages by waste collectors.