Ryanair has called on the EU to take immediate action (Niall Carson/PA)
(Picture: PA Wire)Ryanair has asked the EU to take immediate action to protect flights over French airspace after French air traffic control called a one-day strike.
The airline said: “Ryanair sincerely apologises to its customers for these unnecessary disruptions that this French ATC strike will cause them.”
Ryanair’s operations director, Neal McMahon, added that the strike was “inexplicable” and “inexcusable”.
He said: “It is inexplicable that thousands of European citizens/visitors will have their travel plans unfairly disrupted [on Friday September 16] by yet another French ATC strike. Ryanair is once again calling for immediate EU action to prevent these ATC strikes disrupting the travel plans of thousands of European citizens/visitors.”
“It is inexcusable that passengers who are not even flying to/from France are disrupted because they overfly French airspace at a time when French laws protect French domestic flights. It is time that the EU step in and protect overflights so that European passengers are not repeatedly held to ransom by a tiny French ATC union.”
Irish passengers had already faced huge delays on Saturday September 16 after an IT issue forced Aer Lingus to cancel a number of its flights.
The systems outage caused the cancellation of 52 Aer Lingus flights in and out of Dublin Airport for destinations in Europe and the UK.
Will it affect my holiday?
Ryanair has said that if your holiday is affected, you should have been contacted. All 80,000 customers affected by the action have now been notified and have been advised of their options via email or text.
The cancelled flights will mainly affect people planning to travel between Spain, Italy, Ireland, Germany and other countries that have a flight overflying France.
Meanwhile, Aer Lingus has cancelled four flights between Dublin and Paris tomorrow because of the industrial action.
The flights are EI524, EI525, EI528 and EI529.
The airline said passengers due to travel can change their flight bookings free of charge via the airline’s online booking facility or call centre.
Some Aer Lingus passengers will also be affected by flight cancellations on the Dublin Heathrow route on Monday September 19, as Heathrow airport wishes to reduce noise during Queen Elizabeth’s funeral.
Six flights between Dublin and Heathrow are affected – EI160, EI165, EI168, EI169, EI176 and EI177.
Two flights between Belfast and Heathrow are also affected – EI1932 and EI1935.
Aer Lingus says it has re-accommodated as many passengers as possible on other flights and will be contacting passengers individually.
Flight changes free of charge are also being offered.
What happens next for Ryanair?
Ryanair has proposed three measures that it suggests would alleviate the impact of these French ATC strikes on Europe’s citizens and visitors. These include:
- Requiring French ATC unions to engage in binding arbitration instead of strikes.
- Protecting French overflights (under minimum services laws).
- Allowing Europe’s other ATCs to manage overflights over France while French ATC unions strike.
