Ryanair cancels dozens of flights due to air traffic controllers strike

The airline Ryanair informs, this Wednesday, in a statement that it has canceled 300 flights due to the strike by French air controllers scheduled for this Thursday.

“This situation is due to the fact that France did not protect” flights passing through its airspace “during its national air strikes”, he said.

According to Ryanair, despite the strike being by French air controllers, “the majority of affected passengers do not fly to/from France, but fly over French airspace en route to their destination (e.g. UK, Greece, Spain, Italy)“, ensuring that “French legislation unfairly protects domestic flights”.

“Ryanair again calls on the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, to take urgent measures to protect” these flights, “which she has not done in the last five years”.

Quoted in the same note, the executive president of Ryanair, Michael O’Leary, said that “French air traffic controllers are free to strike, it is their right, but French flights should be canceled and not flights leaving France. Ireland and go to Italy, or flights from Germany to Spain or from Scandinavia to Portugal”.

“The European Commission, under the direction of Ursula von der Leyen, has not taken, for five years, any measure to protect overflights and the single market in air transport”, he criticized, calling for measures to resolve the issue, “which will eliminate more 90% of these flight cancellations”.

The company asks for protection of flights passing through French airspace during strikes and that air controllers from other European countries can manage these connections. It also calls for mandatory arbitration before strikes in France.