French ATC on Saturdays

[JammedStab]

From a recent article about Ryanair...

"The man tasked with selling the new Ryanair, chief marketing officer Kenny Jacobs, sat up at the front of the press conference with O’Leary. Credit to him, Jacobs barely even winced as O’Leary reverted to form, making colorful comments about French air traffic control working practices, particularly on Saturdays."

Anybody here have any personal difficulties with French ATC on the weekend. I have only been there once or twice with no problem.

[kcockayne]

I've been retired for a while, so I'm not totally up to scratch with French ATC nowadays but, I worked alongside, & in co-operation, with Brest ATCC, visited Brest ATCC many times, & experienced its professionalism on countless occasions.
Let me try to re-assure you. Brest ATCC is thoroughly professional & not "bloody minded" in its attitude. As far as my experience is concerned it is doing a fine job & its standards & working practices are as good as any other ANSP.
Michael O'Leary is Michael O'Leary & uses ANY excuse (unfounded or not) to make publicity for Ryanair ( even if it is bad publicity on some occasions !). Take it all with a pinch of salt.

[Hotel Tango]

MOL just expects his airline to have number 1 priority in the skies. Frustratingly for him that's not how ATC works! I hope that the French controllers now ensure that he gets priority LAST!

[parabellum]

Back in the dark days of the eighties French ATC was a bit strike prone, at short notice, but it was Bordeaux that were the problem. If equipped to go oceanic, as some of us were, B757 fully ETOPs etc. then Brest would always accept you.

[ATC Watcher]

MOL Communications strategy as usual .
MOL has in many occasions attacked ATC , not only in France, arguing they should be banned to strike and belong to unions, the usual. Anything to get media coverage and publicity , and it works very well as we can see here.

[Exnomad]

Many years ago, in an RAF aircrsft with a Czech ex WW2 pilot, getting clearance
Conversation French ATC did not speak much english, our Czech RAF pilot's english was good, but very heavy accent. Most illuminating.
We were later informed at there was "fire at Bizerta", looked out of the window expecting to see smoke. They meant we were flying close to a French artillery range.

[flyingmed]

All FR bashing aside there are days where the atc is very poor in France (not necessarily on weekends). Not sure if its overloaded controllers or what but sometimes they seem in need of caffeine! :oh:

[BitMoreRightRudder]

If you aim for Brest on a weekend you can certainly end up with your hands full.