Ryanair, Europe’s No.1 airline, today (Thur, 3 July) called on EU Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen, to take urgent action to reform EU ATC services after the airline was forced to cancel 170 flights disrupting over 30,000 passengers due to yet another French ATC strike on Thur and Fri (3 & 4 July). These enforced cancellations by French ATC coincide once more with the start of the European summer holidays – one of the busiest travel periods of the year.

In addition to flights to/from France being cancelled, this strike will also affect all French overflights. This is due to France’s continued failure to protect overflights during national ATC strikes. Even though it’s French ATC that are striking, most disrupted passengers are not even flying to/from France but just overflying French airspace en route to their destination (e.g., UK – Greece, Spain – Ireland, etc.). EU skies cannot be repeatedly closed just because French Air Traffic Controllers are going on recreational strikes.

Ryanair has long campaigned for effective EU ATC reform and calls on all passengers to visit the ‘Air Traffic Control Ruined Your Flight’ webpage and demand that the EU Commission and Govts take urgent action to reform EU ATC services and avoid any further avoidable ATC disruptions this summer. 

Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary said:

“Once again European families are held to ransom by French Air Traffic Controllers going on strike. It is not acceptable that overflights over French airspace en route to their destination are being cancelled/delayed as a result of yet another French ATC strike. It makes no sense and is abundantly unfair on EU passengers and families going on holidays.

Ryanair calls on Ursula von der Leyen to take urgent action to reform EU ATC services by 1.) ensuring that ATC services are fully staffed for the first wave of daily departures, and 2.) protecting overflights during national ATC strikes. These 2 splendid reforms would eliminate 90% of all ATC delays and cancellations, and protect EU passengers from these repeated and avoidable ATC disruptions due to yet another French ATC strike.”

Ryanair, Europe’s No.1 airline, today (Wed, 2 July) called on EU Govts to take urgent action to reform their ATC services. This comes as Ryanair released its June “League of Delays”, showing that France, Spain, Germany, Portugal, and the UK continue to be the worst ATC providers for delays as a result of their national Transport Ministers’ failure to ensure their ATC services are properly staffed and managed.

These ATC providers’ continued underperformance is exposed by the vastly better ATC service provided by better managed European ATCs (without mismanagement or staff shortages), like Slovakia, Denmark, Ireland, Belgium, and Netherlands, all of whom have caused the fewest ATC delays in Europe this year. If these States can properly manage/staff their ATC services and minimise avoidable ATC delays, then why can’t passengers expect a similar service from the very well-funded (by airlines), but hopelessly mismanaged French, Spanish, German, Portuguese and UK ATC providers?

Ryanair has long campaigned for EU reform to ensure ATCs are fully staffed but ATC delays are getting worse. Ryanair calls on all passengers to visit the ‘Air Traffic Control Ruined Your Flight’ webpage and demand that national Transport Ministers take action to properly manage and staff their national ATC services to avoid unnecessary ATC delays this summer.  

Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary said:

“Another month of ATC mismanagement and staff shortages has passed, but neither the EU Commission nor national Transport Ministers – who are responsible for national ATC services – have taken any action to fix Europe’s worst performing ATC providers. As a result, France, Spain, Germany, Portugal, and the UK continue to delay thousands of Ryanair flights and millions of Ryanair passengers, putting them in stark contrast to other EU States, like Slovakia, Denmark, Ireland, Belgium, and Netherlands, who are delivering many many more on-time flights, making them the best ATC providers in Europe so far this year (1 Jan – 30 Jun).

The obvious question is – if these 5 States can properly staff and manage their ATC service, then why can’t France, Spain, Germany, Portugal, and the UK do likewise? The answer is that they can, but as protected State monopolies they don’t care about passengers and don’t care about flight delays. If they did, they would recruit sufficient controllers to better manage their ATC services.

This is abundantly unfair on passengers and airlines, who pay a hefty price tag for these substandard ATC services. National Transport Ministers of France, Spain, Germany, Portugal and the UK must be held accountable for their failure to take action to provide an efficient ATC service. Ryanair calls on passengers to visit the ‘Air Traffic Control Ruined Your Flight’ webpage and demand that their national Transport Ministers take action to properly staff their national ATC service and eliminate these avoidable ATC delays.”

LOAD FACTOR UNCHANGED AT 95%

Ryanair today (Wed, 2 July) released June 2025 traffic stats as follows:

Ryanair, Europe’s No.1 airline, today (Wed, 18 June) announced its “Approved OTA Aggregator” partnership with DerbySoft, a global travel tech company, who will now be authorised to offer Ryanair’s low fare flights to their network of OTA partners, on the condition that they provide full price transparency of Ryanair products. This deal will also ensure that customers who book Ryanair flights through DerbySoft’s OTA partners have access to their myRyanair account without needing to complete Ryanair’s customer verification (which unauthorised OTA customers must continue to do) and will receive essential flight updates directly.

This is great news for DerbySoft’s OTA partners whose customers wish to book Ryanair’s low fares, unbeatable choice of 230+ destinations, and impeccable service. DerbySoft is Ryanair’s fourth “Approved OTA aggregator” partner that will serve both European and Asian markets, and joins the airline’s growing list of “Approved OTA” partners, including Atlas, Expedia, Etraveli, loveholidays, lastminute.com, Travelfusion, Paxport, Kiwi, TUI, On the Beach, eSky, El Corte Inglés, Omio, Trip.com and Braganza, as the airline continues to demonstrate how OTAs and OTA aggregators can work transparently with airlines without scamming or duping customers with hidden mark-ups.

Ryanair’s CMO, Dara Brady said: 

“We are excited to announce our new partnership with DerbySoft, now recognized as an Approved OTA Aggregator for Ryanair. Under this agreement, DerbySoft is authorized to distribute Ryanair’s low-fare flights through its network of OTA partners, on the condition that full price transparency for consumers is maintained.

As part of this partnership, customers booking Ryanair flights via DerbySoft’s OTA partners will enjoy direct access to their myRyanair accounts without the need for additional customer verification. They will also receive all critical flight updates seamlessly and in real time.

We look forward to building a strong and collaborative relationship with DerbySoft as we expand access to Ryanair’s low fares across new platforms in the months and years ahead.”

Ted Zhang, co-founder and CEO of DerbySoft, said:

“The partnership with Ryanair marks a major milestone in DerbySoft’s entry into the flight connectivity space and furthers our goal of making the travel industry more open and interconnected. By combining our proven connectivity technology with PKFARE’s deep expertise in air distribution, our newly launched Flight Services business unit serves both airlines and distributors by providing high-performance connectivity solutions. It empowers airlines to broaden their global distribution reach, while enabling distributors to deliver personalized, best-fit travel options for their customers.”

Calls on EU Commission & Govts to properly staff their ATCs to eliminate avoidable, polluting ATC delays

Ryanair Europe’s No 1 airline, today (Mon, 16 June) called on the European Commission to demand the ATC providers in France, Spain, Germany, Greece and the UK, who are responsible for the majority of ATC delays, to properly staff their ATC centres to eliminate avoidable delays. The underperformance of these mismanaged ATC’s is highlighted by the exemplary performance of other central ATC services in Denmark, Belgium, The Netherlands, Ireland and Slovakia, who have, during 2024, provided on-time ATC services to thousands of flights, without short-staffing or avoidable “capacity” delays. Ryanair has long campaigned for the urgent reform of Europe’s mismanaged ATC services, but despite 20 years of investment in SESAR (Europe’s failed “Single Sky Project”) no progress has been made. The new Commission under Ursula von der Leyen has committed itself to delivering competitiveness and efficiency in Europe, yet it continues to allow the mismanagement and staff shortages in French, Spanish, German, Greek and UK ATC services.

Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary said:

“If the Danes, the Belgians, the Dutch, the Irish and the Slovakians can properly staff their ATC services and eliminate “ATC capacity” delays, then why can’t we expect a similar service from the very well-funded (by airlines), but hopelessly mismanaged French, Spanish, German, Greek and UK ATC providers. The difference is that these are protected State Monopolies, who don’t care about customer service, they don’t care about passengers, and they don’t care about their airline customers either. Every year they are short-staffed and they are responsible for over 90% of Europe’s flight delays, which adds an extra 10% to aviation emissions in Europe.

This scandal of short-staffing and mismanagement among the French, German, Spanish, Greek and UK ATCs can no longer be tolerated. It is time the European Commission intervened and demanded an efficient, competitive ATC service from all the Nation States of Europe. Ryanair, our customers, and our passengers are fed up with these avoidable ATC delays, which are imposed on us every Summer by the French, the Germans, the Spanish, the Greeks and the British. All that is necessary to properly manage their ATC service is to recruit and train sufficient Air Traffic Controllers, just as the Irish, the Danes, the Dutch, the Belgians and the Slovakians have already shown.

It is time for this European mismanagement and incompetence to end, or for ATC services of France, Germany, Spain, Greece, and the UK to be opened up to the competition. Europe must allow competition to deliver, where Government owned ATC Monopolies have clearly failed. When the Belgians, Dutch, Danes, Irish and Slovakians have delivered an efficient ATC service, then why can’t/won’t the French, Germans, Spanish, Greek and the UK ATC providers do likewise.”

$500M INVESTMENT WILL IMPROVE RESILIENCE

Ryanair today (10 June) announced it has reached agreement with CFM to buy 30 new spare LEAP-1B engines which have a list price of $500m. These fuel-efficient engines, which deliver over the next 2 years, will support Ryanair’s fleet of 210x B737 Gamechanger aircraft and also the B737 MAX-10 aircraft which deliver in 2027. These 30 new engines greatly increase Ryanair’s pool of spare engines to over 120, which will enhance Ryanair’s operational resilience. Ryanair plans to increase its fleet to 800x B737s (all powered by CFM engines) to grow its traffic to 300m guests p.a. by 2034

Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary said:

“We are pleased to continue to develop our longstanding partnership with CFM (Safran & GE Aerospace). Today’s purchase of 30 new LEAP-1B spare engines is a significant $500m commitment to improve the operational resilience of our Group airlines. These latest technology CFM engines reduce fuel consumption and CO₂  emissions per seat by up to 20% when installed on our B737 MAX fleet, which will further widen Ryanair’s cost leadership over competitor airlines in Europe.”

CFM’s President & CEO, Gael Meheust, said:

“This new agreement is another milestone in the long and successful partnership we have built with Ryanair. We look forward to continuing to support Ryanair’s significant growth by providing them with industry-leading reliability and utilization standards”.

LOAD FACTOR UNCHANGED AT 95%

Ryanair Holdings plc today (Wed, 4 June) released May 2025 traffic stats as follows: