PARIS (Reuters) - A strike by French traffic controllers against a single European space authority will disrupt at least one in two flights out of the country's second-busiest airport, aviation authorities said on Tuesday.
The one-day strike, which starts on Tuesday evening, will also hit about 20 percent of flights from France's main Paris Charles de Gaulle airport, aviation authorities said.
Air traffic controllers are against the so-called "Single European Sky" project which aims to unify Europe's fragmented national airspace authorities into a single body.
French unions fear the plan would lead to job losses and curtail some of their benefits.
French carrier Air France said in a statement that the industrial action had forced French aviation authorities to limit the number of flights by all airlines.
It said it would maintain 100 percent of its long-haul flights, 80 percent of its short and medium-haul flights out of Charles de Gaulle airport, and 50 percent of its short and medium-haul flights at the second-busiest Orly airport.
"Some cancellations during the day on Wednesday cannot be ruled out, as well as some delays," Air France said.
The idea for a single airspace authority for the 27-nation bloc has been in discussion since 1960. A volcanic ash crisis which shut much of Europe's airspace in April, has highlighted the need for a single authority.
France is one of six European states -- including Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Switzerland -- which signed a framework deal two years ago aimed at creating a single central European airspace bloc, as part of broader plans to gradually unify air traffic control in the whole of Europe.
(Reporting by Bate Felix; Editing by Maria Golovnina)
