Holidaymakers face further chaos on Friday with a two-day French air traffic control strike forcing airlines to axe flights, hitting 300,000 Irish and European travellers.
Ryanair cancelled more than 400 services, hitting 70,000 passengers as a consequence of the industrial action, due to run on Thursday and Friday, July 3rd and 4th.
Affected flights included services between Irish airports and Paris Beauvais and Nice, some flights between Dublin and French city Biarritz and Murcia in Spain, on Thursday.
Aer Lingus cancelled some flights from Dublin to Paris and Nice over the two days.
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The company said it had told affected customers. It will use a larger aircraft on the routes to provide extra capacity on flights that it does operate. The airline will provide updates on its app and website.
Carriers had cancelled more than 1,500 flights across July 3rd and 4th, hitting almost 300,000 passengers, by 3pm Irish time on Thursday, said industry group, Airlines For Europe.
Air traffic controllers are demanding better working conditions, striking over persistent understaffing, outdated equipment and a toxic management culture.
The French civil aviation agency DGAC on Wednesday asked multiple carriers to reduce flights at Paris airports by 40 per cent on July 4th due to the planned strike.
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The action will hit many services passing through French airspace, but not landing in the country, such as routes from the UK to Greece, and Spain to Ireland, Ryanair said.
Michael O’Leary, its chief executive, pointed out that 350 of its cancelled services were overflights.
He demanded that European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen quit to let “somebody more effective” deliver urgent air traffic control reform in the EU.
Ryanair and other airlines argue that the EU should protect overflights when strikes or other problems disrupt air traffic control in individual member states.
Mr O’Leary pointed out that a report by former Italian premier, Mario Draghi, on EU competitiveness last year identified air traffic control reform as a priority for the bloc.
“Yet 12 months later, nothing has changed. Ursula von der Leyen hides in her office in Brussels, while thousands of European citizens and their families have their flights and their holidays needlessly disrupted,” he declared.
Mr O’Leary dubbed it “unacceptable” that flights which could operate were cancelled because the commission would not act.
[ Customer numbers at Ryanair up 3% in JuneOpens in new window ]
Ryanair says ensuring the bloc’s air traffic control services are fully staffed for the first wave of daily departures, and overflights protected during strikes, would eliminate 90 per cent of all air traffic control delays and cancellations. – Additional reporting: Reuters
