Blockade delays Marseille flights

MARSEILLE airport has been targeted this morning by demonstrators blocking access to the terminals and causing flights to be delayed.

Several hundred protestors have been on the site since about 5.00 and blockades have been placed across all the access roads to the airport.

CGT union representative Mehdi Rachid said the protestors would stay there "until the CRS come and clear us out of the way".

An airport spokesman said some cars were being let through, but the queues are very long and many travellers have abandoned their vehicles at the perimeter and reached the terminal on foot.

No flights have been cancelled yet; however, only two of the eight flights due to depart so far this morning have taken off.

Similar protests were reported yesterday at Paris Orly, Lille, Clermont-Ferrand, Bordeaux and Toulouse airports.

It has been 10 days since unions called a series of rolling strikes and protests against the government's pension reforms.

Transport has been the worst-affected sector. The half-term holidays get under way tomorrow evening and 5,000 petrol stations are currently without fuel.

The shortages are particularly severe in Normandy, Champagne-Ardenne, the Ile-de-France and Picardy.

Train services also remain disrupted. The SNCF says three quarters of TGVs are running and half of Corail trains. Eurostar is running normally.

Photo: PhillipC/Flickr