Dispute hits flights to France

Flights to France were being severely affected today as air traffic controllers prepared to walk out for 32 hours from 10pm.

British Airways has grounded 62 flights to and from Gatwick and Heathrow for the duration of the strike over pay.

A further 12 BA CitiExpress services have also been cancelled.

Go is rescheduling its flights to Nice and Lyon, while Ryanair, Buzz and easyJet said they were monitoring the situation and may have to make changes. Travellers scheduled to fly to France are today being urged to check their flights.

However, British holidaymakers and truckers were able to travel as normal today despite fears a French lorry drivers' dispute would bring chaos across the Channel.

It had been thought that ports would be blockaded in the strike which began at 10pm last night, but UK ferry and haulage companies reported all were blockade-free, including Calais.

There were also reports that police had ordered strikers to remove blockades that had been set up on French inland roads.

Severe disruption could still hit British truckers if the blockade begins to bite but for the time being the situation at Channel ports looked normal. A spokeswoman for Dover-Calais ferry operator P&0 Ferries said: "It's very much business as usual." UK Freight Transport Association spokesman Geoff Dossetter added: "Eurotunnel car and freight shuttle services are working well and there are no queues at Dover."

French truckers set up blockades at ports, distribution centres and fuel depots when last-ditch talks over pay and conditions broke down. Hopes of averting a strike faded when the unions refused to accept an offer.