French air traffic controllers to continue their strike for two more days

President Nicolas Sarkozy vowed Tuesday "to guarantee order," restore fuel supplies and crack down on "troublemakers," as a quarter of France's gas stations ran dry and other disruptions built from nationwide protests and strikes.

His comments marked a hardening of the government's resolve to hold to its program of reforming the indebted pension system despite the job actions by public workers at refineries and railways and in other key sectors. The final parliamentary vote on the plan may not come until early next week, New York Times reports.

Air traffic controllers in France are to continue with their industrial action for another two days, following on from yesterday's strike across the country. They are protesting (as well as hundreds of thousands of other workers across France) against the government's plans to extend the retirement age to 62.

Similarly to yesterday the French Civil Aviation Authority (FCAA) is saying that 50% of flights to and from Paris Orly airport will operate while that figure drops to 30% for all other metropolitan airports, including Charles de Gaulle, Easyvoyage informs.