Ryanair denounces ‘permanent cancellation’ of flights in France, asks Brussels for support

Budget airline Ryanair this Monday denounced the “permanent cancellation” of flights in France due to the French air traffic controllers’ strike, seeking support from the European Commission, which has so far “taken no action.”

In a statement released this Monday, Ryanair deplores “the ongoing cancellation of flights over France due to repeated strikes by French air traffic controllers,” criticizing French legislation only “to protect French domestic flights.”

For its part, according to the Irish air carrier, European Union (EU) flights from Germany, Spain, Italy, the United Kingdom and Ireland “are only canceled because a small French union of French air traffic controllers repeatedly closes the skies over Europe. “.

Over the weekend, more than 25% of Ryanair’s 9,000 scheduled flights were delayed due to violations by French air traffic controllers, and 230 flights (which were supposed to carry 41,000 passengers) were canceled due to capacity restrictions, according to the company.

“These repeated interruptions of flights from the EU are unacceptable,” he stresses.

The position comes a week after Ryanair launched a petition asking the European Commission to intervene to “protect passengers” during airstrikes in France, demanding minimal maintenance and external flight management.

“Unfortunately, to date, the European Commission, led by Ursula von der Leyen, has not taken any action regarding these measures to protect EU citizens and overflights,” Ryanair lamented.

Ryanair said last week that strikes in France’s aviation sector this year have already caused more than a million air passengers to be delayed or canceled, mostly flying over French territory.

Claiming that there are no European rules to protect flights over French airspace during the current strikes, the low-cost Irish airline has asked community leaders to use minimum service laws to protect flights that allow other air traffic controllers in Europe to operate flights over France and even force French trade unions hold mandatory arbitration proceedings before calling strikes.

Currently, France is experiencing several strikes organized by trade unions – not only representatives of air traffic controllers, but also others – in protest against French President Emmanuel Macron’s pension reform aimed at raising the minimum retirement age from 62 to 64 years.

This situation affects aviation in the country, which has already led the French Civil Aviation Authority to ask airlines to reduce flight schedules.

Ryanair data shows that with 14 strikes over the past eight weeks, the number of passengers affected by this situation already exceeds those faced with similar scenarios in 2022, with 80% of the current affected flights coming from flights in France, such as those in United States and from them. Kingdom, Portugal, Spain, Italy and Greece.

Data released last week also showed that 350 flights to or from Portugal were affected this year, with a total of 62,500 delayed or canceled passengers as French laws only protect domestic flights.