Ryanair, Europe’s No 1 airline, today (11 Sep) called on the French Macron Government and European Commission to take immediate action to prevent the skies over Europe being closed yet again tomorrow (Tuesday) by French ATC unions.

Ryanair regrets that it has been forced to cancel 110 flights on Tuesday (12 Sep) 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:

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

Ryanair advised customers due to travel on Tuesday 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 will be presented to the European Commission when it accrues a million signatures.

Ryanair’s Kenny Jacobs said:

“President Macron’s Government has announced a major transformation of French labour laws – but it appears nothing changes when it comes to ATC disruption and unions holding Europe to ransom. 2016 was a record year for ATC strikes and French Air Traffic Control unions have announced further strike action this week. As a result, we regret we’ve been forced to cancel 110 flights on Tuesday, 12^th September.

Enough is enough. If the French Government is serious about changing France, they should start by tackling these Air Traffic Control unions, and together with the European Commission, should 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 once again. They cannot stand idly by as more disruption and travel misery is inflicted upon Europe’s consumers and airlines.

All of our affected customers have been contacted and informed of their options and we advise all customers travelling on Tuesday to check the status of their flight on the Ryanair.com website before leaving for their airport. We again urge European consumers 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.”

Further flight info: https://www.ryanair.com/ie/en/useful-info/help-centre/travel-updates