Ryanair warns 100,000 passengers face cancellations amid ATC strike

Ryanair’s chief executive has warned that 100,000 of the airline’s passengers could see their flights disrupted next week because of an air traffic control union strike in France.

 

Michael O’Leary also said the industrial action would cost Ryanair about £20 million.

 

He told Sky News that the airline could afford to swallow the cost, but added: “It would ultimately be customers who will be worse off, and they should complain.”

 

Members of the SNCTA will go on strike from Tuesday October 7 until the morning of Friday October 10 over a dispute about pay and working conditions.

 

As well as flights to France, it will affect ‘overflights’ which use French airspace to reach their final destinations, such as Spain, Italy and Greece.

 

O’Leary called for overflights to be protected from strike action, saying disrupting them is an abuse of the free single market.

 

“On the first two days of the strikes, he said Ryanair was expecting to be asked to cancel about 600 flights - with almost all of them overflights,” reported Sky News.

 

“The UK is the country whose flights get cancelled most because of the geographic proximity to France.”

 

He suggested Eurocontrol, a civil-military organisation that supports air traffic management across Europe, could step in to look after the airspace and keep flights operating.

 

“We bloody well demand that our overflights are protected. If British citizens today going to Italy, or we have Spanish visitors wanting to come to London, they should not have their flights disrupted or cancelled,” he said.

 

O’Leary encouraged affected passengers to complain about any disruptions to transport ministers and the European Commission using the airline’s dedicated ATCruinedourholiday.com website.

 

The strike by French air traffic controllers had originally been planned for September 18-19 but the action was rescheduled for October 7-9.