More than 30,000 passengers have had their travel plans disrupted after Ryanair cancelled over 170 flights because of French air traffic control strikes.
The low-cost airline said the cancellations today and tomorrow will affect flights to and from France – impacting families travelling abroad for summer holidays.
But most disrupted passengers are being affected by cancellations to flights over French airspace to destinations such as the UK, Greece, Spain and Ireland.
Some 15 flights arriving at or departing from London Stansted Airport have been cancelled while others have been axed at Manchester and Edinburgh.
Hundreds of flights across multiple airlines have been cancelled in France, with the strike by two French unions also affecting air traffic across western Europe.
Easyjet said it would cancel 274 flights today and tomorrow, while Air France adapted its flight schedule and British Airways was using larger aircraft to mitigate disruption.
In France, half of all flights in Nice and a quarter of flights at Paris Orly and Paris Charles de Gaulle, one of Europe’s busiest hubs, have been cancelled.
Disruption is expected to worsen tomorrow on the eve of the start of the European summer holidays, which is one of the busiest travel periods of the year.
Passengers carry their luggage at Roissy Charles-de-Gaulle Airport in Paris today
Passengers gather inside Paris Roissy-Charles de Gaulle Airport during the strike today
Passengers inside Roissy-Charles de Gaulle Airport during the air traffic control strike today
Passengers wait for information at Paris Roissy-Charles de Gaulle Airport today
Passengers carry their luggage at Roissy Charles-de-Gaulle Airport in Paris today
Passengers look at flight information boards inside Roissy-Charles de Gaulle Airport today
French air traffic controllers launched the two-day strike today to protest understaffing and ‘toxic management’.
One passenger, Nadia Rivet, a 51-year-old bank employee, told AFP: ‘We’re trying to stay positive, there are worse things, but it’s annoying,’
She was planning to spend six days in the French capital but her flight from the southwestern city of Pau this morning was cancelled.
‘Everyone has the right to strike, but it’s punitive. Air traffic controllers aren’t the worst off,’ Ms Rivet said, adding she hoped to have more luck tomorrow.
France’s civil aviation agency the DGAC has asked airlines to cancel some of their flights to ensure there are enough controllers on duty.
Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary renewed calls on European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to take ‘urgent action’ to reform European Union air traffic control (ATC) services in light of the disruption.
Mr 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.’
Passengers carry their luggage at Roissy Charles-de-Gaulle Airport in Paris today
Empty check-in desks inside Paris Roissy-Charles de Gaulle Airport in France today
Passengers look at the departure information board at Roissy Charles-de-Gaulle Airport today
Passengers gather inside Paris Roissy-Charles de Gaulle Airport during the strike today
Passengers carry their luggage at Roissy Charles-de-Gaulle Airport in Paris today
Ryanair has long-campaigned for an overhaul of ATC services across Europe.
It wants the EU to ensure ATC services are fully staffed for the first wave of daily departures, as well as to protect overflights during national ATC strikes.
‘These two splendid reforms would eliminate 90 per cent of all ATC delays and cancellations, and protect EU passengers from these repeated and avoidable ATC disruptions due to yet another French ATC strike,’ Mr O’Leary added.
Airlines for Europe (A4E), an industry association which includes Ryanair, Air France-KLM, Lufthansa, British Airways and EasyJet, described the action as ‘intolerable’.
According to sources, 270 air traffic controllers out of a total workforce of around 1,400 went on strike.
France’s second-largest air traffic controllers’ union, UNSA-ICNA, launched the action to demand better working conditions and more staff.
The union is protesting ‘chronic understaffing’, the planned introduction of a clock-in system, outdated equipment and ‘toxic management practices that are incompatible with the requirements of calm and safety’.
‘The DGAC is failing to modernise the tools that are essential to air traffic controllers, even though it continues to promise that all necessary resources are being made available,’ UNSA-ICNA said in a statement.
‘The systems are on their last legs, and the (air traffic control) agency is constantly asking more of its staff to compensate for its difficulties.’
A flight information board inside Roissy-Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris today
Passengers wait for information at Paris Roissy-Charles de Gaulle Airport today
A flight information board inside Roissy-Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris today
Planes are seen on the Tarmac of Roissy Charles-de-Gaulle Airport in Paris today
A flight information board inside Roissy-Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris today
It was joined by the third largest union, USAC-CGT, which said the DGAC had failed to comprehend the frustration felt by controllers.
The DGAC did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the trade unions’ concerns.
Their complaints echo grievances expressed by air traffic controllers in the US over outdated infrastructure, dramatic staffing shortfalls and failing technology.
France’s Transport Minister Philippe Tabarot called the unions’ demands unacceptable’.
The main air traffic controllers’ union, SNCTA, had no plans to join the strike.
Airports in the south of France were particularly hit, with 30 per cent of flights cancelled in cities including Lyon, Marseille and Montpellier.
Air France said it had been ‘forced to adapt its flight schedule’ without specifying the number of cancellations, but stressed that its long-haul network was not affected.
By mid-morning today, flights were experiencing significant delays, including an average of 1.5 hours for arrivals and 1 hour for departures in Nice, France’s third-largest airport.
Tomorrow, the situation is expected to become even more tense at Paris airports and Beauvais, where the DGAC has ordered a 40 per cent reduction in the number of flights.
This morning, the Eurocontrol monitoring agency warned airlines of ‘significant’ delays in the airspace managed by the air traffic control centres in Marseille, Brest and Reims.
Some 29,000 commercial flights were scheduled for today in Europe, said Eurocontrol.
Passengers gather inside Paris Roissy-Charles de Gaulle Airport during the strike today
The air traffic control tower of Roissy Charles-de-Gaulle Airport in Paris is pictured today
A flight information board inside Roissy-Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris today
The air traffic control tower of Roissy Charles-de-Gaulle Airport in Paris is pictured today
Planes are seen on the Tarmac of Roissy Charles-de-Gaulle Airport in Paris today
Business aviation, particularly in Nice and Le Bourget near Paris, has also been significantly affected, sources said.
The DGAC asked airlines to cut one in four flights in and out of Paris airports and almost half of flights out of the capital tomorrow.
Elsewhere, airlines were asked to reduce flights by 30 to 50 per cent.
‘Despite these preventative measures, disturbances and significant delays are to be expected at all French airports,’ the agency said, urging passengers to change their flights if they were able to.
Meanwhile Ryanair said yesterday it had been hit by the recent conflict in the Middle East, and it cancelled more than 800 flights last month.
It is among those to have cancelled and rerouted flights amid the conflict between Israel and Iran, as well as continued attacks in Gaza.
Last week, flights were halted at Dubai airport in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as passengers were told to expect further delays and cancellations.
Ryanair said it still operated more than 109,000 flights in June, indicating that fewer than 1 per cent of flights were affected.
The Ireland-based business carried 19.9million passengers in June, representing a 3 per cent increase on the same month last year.
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