Ryanair could cancel up to 600 flights a day next week due to French air traffic control (ATC) strikes, the airline has claimed.
The company’s chief executive, Michael O’Leary, has reiterated demands to the EU to protect overflights in a long-running campaign to minimise the disruption from ATC strikes.
The strikes mean flights from the UK to France and holiday destinations such as Spain, Italy and Greece will be affected, as those routes overfly France.
The biggest French air traffic control union, the SNCTA, has announced strike action taking place from 7 to 10 October, reducing capacity across western European airspace.
Airlines will not know exactly how many flights they need to cancel until the action is confirmed and almost under way, but O’Leary said he expects Ryanair to be told to cancel up to 600 daily, affecting up to 100,000 passengers.
Other airlines have yet to put a figure on the potential disruption.
About 30 Ryanair flights were cancelled on Thursday, including some overflying France, due a strike by smaller unions.
It said more than 190 of its flights, carrying 35,000 Ryanair passengers, were delayed for hours in another French strike two weeks ago on 18 September.
In a statement posted online on Wednesday night, O’Leary said: “We cannot have a situation in the EU where we have a single market yet we close that market every time the French go on strike.
“They have the right to strike, but if flights are to be cancelled they should be flights arriving to and from France. They should not be overflights.
“We’re calling again on Ursula von der Leyen, European Commission president … If she’s not willing to defend the single market, if she’s not willing to protect overflights, then she should go.”
O’Leary suggested that Eurocontrol, which oversees the operations of Europe’s independent air traffic control services, could manage overflights during strikes.
Ryanair’s statements have been the most vociferous, but a number of airlines have also aired concerns about air traffic control’s role in flight delays. While strikes are the biggest bugbear, post-Covid staff shortages in some control centres in Europe, and occasional technical glitches, have also contributed to disruption.
Constraints on where planes can fly, including the closure of Ukrainian and Russian airspace, have contributed to the squeeze on flight paths, with air traffic control having to “regulate” – or delay – many more flights.
EasyJet and British Airways were contacted for comment.
