DUBLIN- Today, Ryanair (FR), Europe’s leading airline, announced the cancellation of over 300 flights due to the French ATC strike scheduled for Thursday, April 25. This results from France’s failure to safeguard overflights during national air strikes.
Although the French ATC is striking, most disrupted passengers are not flying to or from France but overflying French airspace en route to their destination (e.g., UK – Greece, Spain, Italy).
Ryanair Cancel 300 Flights
French law unfairly protects domestic flights, meaning French flights are protected while non-French flights get canceled. Ryanair once again urges the EU Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen, to take urgent action to protect overflights, which she has failed to do for the last 5 years.
ATC strikes deny EU citizens’ freedom of movement. Ryanair calls on passengers to join its campaign by signing the ‘Protect Overflights: Keep EU Skies Open’ petition, which has over 2.1 million signatures from Europe’s frustrated passengers.
Ryanair and its 200 million passengers demand that the EU Commission take the following measures to protect overflights during French ATC strikes:
- Protect French overflights by law during ATC strikes as they do in Greece, Italy, and Spain.
- Allow Europe’s other ATCs to manage flights over France while French ATC is on strike.
- Mandate that French ATC unions must engage in binding arbitration before calling strikes.
CEO Remarks
Michael O’Leary, CEO of Ryanair, stated:
“French air traffic controllers are free to go on strike. That’s their right, but we should be canceling French flights, not flights leaving Ireland, going to Italy, or flights from Germany to Spain or Scandinavia to Portugal. The European Commission under Ursula von der Leyen has failed for 5 years to take any action to protect overflights and the single market for air travel. Again, we’re calling on her to take action to protect overflights, which will eliminate over 90% of these flight cancellations.
In June, we will have European elections. We encourage everyone to vote in these elections and demand your MEP and the European Commission to take action to protect overflights. We can’t have the skies over Europe repeatedly closed because French Air Traffic Controllers are going on strike.
Protect overflights during national ATC strikes, reduce flight cancellations and disruptions, and let’s have a better summer for all of Europe’s citizens and visitors.”
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