Air France, Transavia and Corsair strike, 17 to 21 October 2026: notice suspended, your rights

A joint union front of French flight crew, made up of the SNPL (pilots), UNSA PNC, SNPNC-FO, SNGAF and UNAC (cabin crew), had filed notice of a strike from 00:01 on Saturday 17 October to 23:59 on Wednesday 21 October 2026, Paris time. It covered pilots and cabin crew at every airline employing them under French law, chiefly Air France, Transavia France and Corsair.

The strike was due to start on the day French schools break up for the All Saints' holidays (17 October to 2 November 2026). The notice was suspended on the evening of Friday 9 October.

The dispute is over France's reform of combining a pension with paid work (the cumul emploi-retraite), due to take effect on 1 January 2027. The unions want flight crew excluded from it, and the independence of their supplementary pension fund, the CRPN, protected.

On 9 October the government made new commitments: a rewritten circular, now addressed to the national pension fund (CNAV) rather than giving orders to the CRPN; a motion by the CRPN board ruling out any cut to the CRPN pension before a first basic pension has been drawn; and a decree announced as imminent. The unions suspended their notice that evening, stressing that the suspension is not a blank cheque: everything depends on the decree being published.

French law requires striking flight crew to declare it at least 48 hours ahead, and airlines to tell passengers at least 24 hours before the disruption starts (law of 19 March 2012). If the unions restart their action, cancellations will therefore come late. Check your booking in the airline's app and keep the cancellation email or text message: the date you received it matters for compensation.

Whatever the cause, the airline must offer you the choice between a full refund of your ticket within 7 days and another flight to your destination at the earliest opportunity, or at a later date of your choice. While you wait it must also provide meals and refreshments, a hotel and transport to it if you have to stay overnight, and two phone calls or emails.

If you were told of the cancellation less than 14 days before departure, you are also owed fixed compensation, unless the airline proves extraordinary circumstances:

• €250 for a flight under 1,500 km, such as Paris to Nice (about 690 km);
• €400 for a flight of 1,500 to 3,500 km, and for any flight over 1,500 km between mainland France and the French Caribbean, French Guiana, Réunion or Mayotte, which count as flights within the EU;
• €600 over 3,500 km, such as Paris to New York.

If you are flying home from France to the UK or Ireland, you are covered too: EU261 applies to every flight departing from France, whichever airline operates it.

If you reach your destination 3 hours or more late, the same amounts apply (Court of Justice of the European Union, Sturgeon, C-402/07, 2009). What counts is when the aircraft doors open on arrival, not when it took off (Germanwings, C-452/13, 2014).

As a rule, yes. The Court of Justice of the European Union has held that a strike by an airline's own staff, called by their unions, is not an extraordinary circumstance: it is part of the airline's normal activity (Airhelp v SAS, C-28/20, 2021). It applied the same reasoning to a solidarity strike by a subsidiary's staff (Eurowings, C-613/20, 2021).

If the action restarts, it will target a reform decided by the state, which the airline cannot grant on its own, and the Court has never ruled on that situation. In our view it would still be the airline's own pilots and cabin crew who stop work, so compensation would remain due; but airlines would likely argue extraordinary circumstances. If your flight is cancelled for another reason, that reason decides: a technical fault or a shortage of crew generally means compensation is owed, exceptional weather generally means it is not.

A strike by air traffic controllers, airport staff or a ground-handling company is a third-party strike, which generally rules out fixed compensation. The refund or re-routing, and care while you wait, are still owed. As of 15 October 2026, no such strike has been announced in France for these dates.

• Keep your booking confirmation and boarding pass.
• Screenshot the cancellation or delay message, with its date and time.
• Keep receipts for meals, hotels and transport.
• If you are offered a voucher, you do not have to accept it: refunds are paid in money unless you agree otherwise in writing.

• Air France
• Transavia
• Strikes

The texts this page is based on:

• Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 February 2004 · EUR-Lex
• Judgment in Sturgeon, C-402/07 (2009), Court of Justice of the European Union · CURIA
• Judgment in Germanwings, C-452/13 (2014), Court of Justice of the European Union · CURIA
• Judgment in Airhelp, C-28/20 (2021), Court of Justice of the European Union · CURIA
• Judgment in Eurowings, C-613/20 (2021), Court of Justice of the European Union · CURIA