Airlines were working hard over night to restore services after a strike by French air traffic controllers was unexpectedly called off at midnight after two days.
While carriers hoped to be able to run a near normal schedule from this morning, there were warnings of knock-on effects.
But an already difficult situation was compounded further by Belgian controllers walking out for two hours from 6pm yesterday causing further disruption to flights.
EasyJet warned of “a potential for some knock-on delays due to the Europe-wide disruption in the past couple of days” after cancelling 20% of its Wednesday flights.
Airlines were continuing to cancel more flights yesterday evening prior to the announcement that the industrial action – originally due to last until Sunday – had been abandoned
“We are continuing to do everything possible to minimise the impact to our customers,” easyJet said.
British Airways cautioned that it would not be able to restore a normal schedule until tomorrow.
“Unfortunately, their announcement on Wednesday evening to call off the strike came too late for British Airways to restore its normal scheduled services on Thursday,” the airline said. “We will be using larger aircraft where possible to re-accommodate customers from cancelled flights.”
Around 15% of Ryanair’s 1,600 daily flights were grounded yesterday as the carrier sought to minimise disruption across its network.
The airline was suffering air traffic control delays of up to four hours on flights to and from France and those operating over the country.
However, Ryanair pledged to run all scheduled flights a normal today (Thursday).
The Unsa-ICNA union, which launched the industrial action by French controllers, said the strike had been called off after the government recognised the “importance of investment in the sector”.