Ryanair cancels Europe holiday flights as air traffic control strikes | Travel News | Travel
Budget airline Ryanair has cancelled flights due to an air traffic control strike in France. Industrial action is due to start on Monday afternoon and run until 6am on Wednesday.
The airline called for the European Commission to intervene to allow aircraft to fly over France without disruption.
Ryanair operations director, Neal McMahon, said: “We have had to cancel a small number of our 2,500 daily flights as a result of yet another pointless French Air Traffic Control strike, the third already this year.
“It is inexplicable that French air traffic control can once again hold European passengers and visitors to ransom.
“Even passengers who are not flying to/from France are impacted because they overfly French airspace at a time when French laws protect French domestic flights.
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“The European Commission must step in and to preserve the free movement of people by protecting overflights from these needless strikes.
“Protecting overflights, as done in Italy and Greece is the simplest and most effective solution to avoid unnecessary mass disruption and must be implemented to protect passengers.”
easyJet also warned British passengers they could face disruption during the industrial action.
It said that as many as 65 percent of its flights could be affected as they operate through French air space.
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Strike action is expected to cause major disruption in France as unions unite across several industries.
The British Government warned tourists to avoid demonstrations if possible and to follow the advice of local authorities.
Workers are striking over public sector pension reforms which will raise the minimum retirement age from 62 to 64.
Air traffic controllers also walked out in Spain on February 6 with action expected every Monday throughout February.
Jet2 warned that its flights to Spain could be affected although it said it would try to keep “disruption to a minimum”.
easyJet said it didn’t expect to see disruption to its schedule caused by the Spanish air traffic control strikes.
Only 16 Spanish airports will be impacted by the strikes and a minimum level of service has to be maintained at all times.
This means that the impact of air traffic control strikes in Spain is often less dramatic than in other destinations.
