THOUSANDS of Britons’ travel plans were thrown into disarray yesterday by flight cancellations and delays caused by the wave of strikes in France.

More than 110 flights between Britain and France were cancelled, most of them with the budget airlines easyJet and Ryanair, because of a partial French air traffic controllers’ strike until 5am today.

Train and ferry services from England ran according to schedule, despite industrial action shutting down much of France’s public transport network.

But as violence flared on the streets of central Paris, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office advised visitors to stay away from areas where demonstrations were planned or taking place. A spokesman said: “We’re not saying don’t go to France; we are saying avoid these areas.”

With a skeleton air traffic control service, the number of slots available over French airspace was cut back.

Ryanair cancelled 70 flights between Ireland, France, Britain, Italy, Spain, Germany, Belgium, Sweden and Portugal. EasyJet cancelled 44.

British Airways, which operates about 100 flights a day between Britain and France, cancelled some flights because of bad weather in northern Europe. None of its flights to France was cancelled because of the strikes, but several were subject to long delays. “A lot of the budget airlines cancelled their flights in advance,” a spokeswoman said. “That left enough slots open for us to operate our full schedule.”

Eurostar continued to operate its regular service to France with 26 trains running beneath the Channel between London and Paris.

A spokeswoman said that passenger numbers had been swelled by air travellers whose flights had been cancelled.

“People who have been unable to fly but needed to travel have been turning up to our terminals in both London and Paris,” she said. “I couldn’t say how many there have been.”

A spokesman for P&O Ferries, which operates 50 ferry trips between Dover and France every day, reported that all vessels were running to schedule.

Passenger numbers had not been affected by the threat of strikes on the other side of the Channel, he added.

“The vast majority of our traffic is independent motorists and the haulage industry. They are not dependent on air traffic controllers or trains,” the spokesman said. “That’s probably the difference.”

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