Ryanair, Europe’s No.1 airline, today (5^th June) called on the EU Commission to take urgent action to protect passengers during yet another French ATC strike taking place tomorrow (Thurs), 6^th June, which has forced the airline to cancel almost 100 flights to/from Paris Beauvais Airport at short notice.

Since 2023, there has been 84 days of French ATC strikes forcing airlines to cancel thousands of EU overflights from Germany, Spain, Italy, Ireland, and the UK, while France in particular uses Minimum Service Laws to protect French flights. This is unfair. France (and all other EU states) should protect overflights during ATC strikes as they do in Spain, Italy, and Greece.

Ryanair again calls on the EU Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen, to take urgent action to protect overflights during ATC strikes, which she has failed to do for the last 5 years. EU citizens’ freedom of movement is being denied by these ATC strikes. Ryanair calls on EU passengers to sign its ‘Protect Overflights: Keep EU Skies Open’ petition, which has over 2.1m signatures from Europe’s fed up passengers and demand that the EU Commission take the following measures in order to protect overflights during French ATC strikes;

1. Protect French overflights by law during ATC strikes as they do in Greece, Italy and Spain
2. Allow Europe’s other ATCs to manage flights over France while French ATC are on strike
3. Mandate that French ATC unions must engage in binding arbitration before calling strikes

Affected passengers have been notified and advised of their options to either move to another flight or to receive a full refund.  

A Ryanair spokesperson said:

“It is inexplicable that Ursula von der Leyen and the EU Commission have failed to take action to protect EU passengers’ Freedom of Movement during these repeated French ATC strikes. As a result, we have been forced to cancel almost 100 flight to/from Paris Beauvais Airport tomorrow, Thurs 6^th June, unfairly disrupting thousands of EU passengers’ travel plans at short notice.

EU passengers are sick and tired of suffering unnecessary cancellations during ATC strikes. The EU Commission must now act upon Ryanair’s Protect Passengers – Keep EU Skies Open petition of more than 2.1m EU passengers’ signatures which Ryanair delivered directly to the EU Commission offices in May, Sept and Jan last. There is no excuse for EU passengers to bear the burden of national ATC strikes that are completely unrelated to them and its time that Ursula von der Leyen and the EU Commission do something about it.”