A month doesn’t go by where an Air Traffic Controller strike doesn’t threaten air travel in Europe.

The latest threat comes from strike-happy France whose Air Traffic Controller union, SNCTA, has announced a potential ‘Industrial Action’ for March 18.

Negotiations are scheduled throughout the weekend, but should they fail EuroControl warns of widespread delays and up to 30% of flights in and around France to be cancelled.

No other details have been released as unions like to keep a surprise or 2 up their sleeves until just before the start of the strike.

In most cases, these threats are usually averted as the deadline nears and are used as scare tactics to get management to negotiate.

If your travels involve flying to or from France early next week, you may want to investigate back up options such as using rail or renting a car should a strike actually take place.

Next up? Italy has already penciled in an ‘Industrial Action’ of their own for March 30.

Perhaps we should start naming these strike threats using the same convention that we use when naming hurricanes, snow showers and polar vortexes. This way at least we can keep track of them all…..