Ryanair, Europe’s No 1 airline, called on the French Government and European Commission to take immediate action to prevent the skies over Europe being closed yet again by French ATC unions.

Ryanair regrets that it has been forced to cancel 45 flights on Monday (6 Mar) to/from/over France, with further cancellations possible and delays likely as French ATC unions yet again close the skies over Europe.

Ryanair and other EU airlines have repeatedly called upon the Commission to introduce three simple measures which would alleviate the impact of these frequent ATC strikes on Europe’s citizens:

• (a) require French ATC unions to engage in binding arbitration instead of strikes
• 
(b) allow Europe’s other ATCs to operate overflights over France while their unions strike
• (c) protect French overflights (under minimum service obligations) during French ATC strikes

Ryanair advised customers due to travel on Monday to check the status of their flight on the Ryanair.com website before travelling to the airport, and urged all its customers to sign the A4E “Keep Europe’s Skies Open” petition, which it will present to the European Commission when it accrues a million signatures.

Ryanair’s Kenny Jacobs said:

“After a record year of ATC disruption in 2016, French Air Traffic Control unions have announced further strike action this week, and as a result, we regret we’ve been forced to cancel 45 flights on Monday, 6th March. All affected customers have been contacted and informed of their options and we advise all customers travelling on Monday to check the status of their flight on the Ryanair.com website before leaving for their airport.

We call on the French Government and European Commission to take immediate action to prevent thousands of European consumers from having their travel plans disrupted by a tiny group of ATC unions going on strike. They cannot stand idly by and allow another summer of disruption and travel misery for European consumers to take place. We urge all customers to sign the A4E online petition, Keep Europe’s Skies Open, (http://www.keepeuropesskiesopen.com/) to help protect Europe from repeated disruption by ATC unions.”