The boss of Europe’s biggest budget airline has warned of long delays this summer caused by air traffic control problems – and predicts that some passengers will get drunk and become disruptive as a result of long waits.
Michael O’Leary, chief executive of Ryanair, told The Independent that he expects air traffic control (ATC) problems to increase in the months ahead. He said: “We think this summer will be another mess with air traffic control. It’s good at the moment because we’re in the middle of the winter season.
“The French will start striking around May or June. And then air traffic controllers will start not showing up to work on Saturdays and Sundays during the summer schedule, and we'll have all these ‘mythical’ ATC capacity restrictions.
“They're not capacity restrictions. They're ATC staff shortages, and we believe the European Union should be fining air traffic control providers if they're not fully staffed for the first wave of morning flights – particularly on Saturdays and Sundays during the summer.
“Because if you get the first wave of flights away, the rest of the day will operate pretty much on time.”
Eurocontrol, the Brussels-based air traffic coordinator, concurs. A briefing it issued to air navigation service providers (ANSPs) on Friday spelt out: “A special focus should be kept on the first rotation of the day, in order to avoid potential ‘knock-on effect’ on increasing delays in the network throughout the day.”
IAG, the parent company of British Airways, included in a notification to the markets: “The group has been impacted by ATC issues in the past, including strikes by French air traffic controllers in July 2025.
“An overall lack of capacity in the European, UK, or other air traffic control systems has made it harder for ANSPs to deliver a resilient service during strikes or extreme weather events in recent years.
For many months, Ryanair has carried a banner on its home page showing the number of flights it says are delayed each day due to air traffic control shortcomings.
Eurocontrol warns of impending “overload” at a number of European locations. They include Brest, Marseille and Reims in France; the Canary Islands, Madrid and Seville in Spain; as well as Athens, Lisbon and London.
Kathryn Leahy, chief operating officer for the main UK air traffic control provider, Nats, said: “It’s no secret that UK airspace has capacity constraints and that airspace in the South East and over London particularly is some of the busiest and most complex in the world.
“Yet according to Eurocontrol, Nats handled almost 24 per cent of European flights in 2025 and was attributable for just 1.3 per cent of all European air traffic management delay. We will continue to work across borders, with Eurocontrol and Network Manager, to coordinate and collaborate this year.
“During the busiest periods, we have even more resilience built into our rostering to ensure we have the right number of staff across our operational and technical teams.”
Mr O’Leary also reiterated his call for passengers at airports to be limited to a maximum of two drinks while waiting for a flight.
"All airlines are concerned about the rise in passenger misbehaviour,” he said.
“I think the real cause of this has been air traffic control delays at European airports during the summer season. It does lead to a rise in alcohol consumption.
“We have licensing laws everywhere except at airports. I can’t understand why you allow airport bars to open and serve alcohol at five, six, seven o'clock in the morning.
“But if you are going to serve alcohol, there should be a limit of two alcoholic drinks per passenger or per boarding pass.
“We operate pretty much the same on board our aircraft. It is very rare we would serve anybody more than one or two drinks on board. And where people are misbehaving, we don't serve them alcohol at all.
“But airports fill them full of alcohol during flight delays, and then they leave the airlines – not just Ryanair, all airlines – to deal with the consequences of this disruptive and unruly behaviour, and we have to put a stop to it.”
Mr O’Leary also predicted that air fares would not rise above inflation, currently 3.4 per cent, in 2026.
“Our view is that average airfares might rise by 2 or 3 per cent this year,” he said.
“But oil prices are falling, and I think if oil prices keep falling, we'll be able to pass on those savings in the form of lower airfare. So we're not really quite sure what's going to happen this year.
“A lot will depend on what Mr Trump does with tariffs and Greenland, and whether there's a trade war between Europe and the US. So, it's a very uncertain world out there.”
Hear more: Listen to Simon Calder’s interview with Michael O'Leary for The Independent’s daily travel podcast
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