Ryanair cancels hundreds of flights because of air traffic control strikes, with up to 50,000 passengers affected

25 April 2024, 11:36 | Updated: 25 April 2024, 11:37

Ryanair has been forced to cancel over 300 flights because of French air traffic control staff plans to go on strike.

Easyjet and Lufthansa were among the other airlines who warned that their flights would be affected by the industrial action on Thursday.

The strike was actually called off at the last minute after the French air traffic controllers' union announced that it had reached a deal with managers over working conditions.

But that did not remove the threat of disruption, as some of France's biggest airports cancelled many flights.

The French civil aviation authority said 75% of Thursday's flights at Paris Orly airport would be axed, along with 55% of flights at Paris Charles de Gaulle and 65% of flights at Marseille.

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And it's not only flights to France that are affected - many of the services that have been cancelled are simply crossing over the country's airspace.

Ryanair said that "most disrupted passengers are not flying to/from France but overfly French airspace en route to their destination (e.g., UK – Greece, Spain, Italy)."

The company also claimed that France "unfairly protects domestic flights which means French flights are protected but non-French flights get cancelled."

The airline's CEO Michael O'Leary said: "French air traffic controllers are free to go on strike, that’s their right, but we should be cancelling French flights, not flights leaving Ireland, going to Italy, or flights from Germany to Spain or Scandinavia to Portugal."

He said that the European Commission had "failed for 5 years to take any action to protect overflights and the single market for air travel."

Mr O'Leary called on the Commission's president Ursula von der Leyen "to take action to protect overflights which will eliminate over 90% of these flight cancellations."

He added: "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."

Easyjet said that the disruption was "totally unacceptable", particularly for "the hundreds of thousands of clients whose flights will not take off from or land in France".

Ourania Georgoutsakou, head of industry group Airlines for Europe (A4E), said on Wednesday: "While the withdrawing of strike notice may offer some relief for some passengers, its last-minute nature means that there will still be significant disruption to flights in France and across parts of Europe."

The Foreign Office has also updated its travel advice for France.

A notice on the website says: "It is being reported that on Thursday 25 April, flights across France will be disrupted, with many cancelled, following a call for strike action by air traffic control unions.

"Check your operator’s advice before travelling, including where you are taking connecting flights."

Some 16,000 flights were cancelled last year because of air traffic control strikes in Europe, as well as 85,000 delayed.

And some in the airline industry are concerned that industrial action could affect the Olympic Games in Paris this summer, when over a million people are expected to come into and out of the French capital.