Several flights between Dublin and France on Monday are among more than 200 flights cancelled by Ryanair, due to strikes by air traffic controllers (ATC) in France.
Flights between Dublin and a number of French destinations, including Paris, Nice, Toulouse, Bordeaux, Lourdes, Nimes and Carcassonne, have been affected by the cancellations.
The Irish airline said in total some 40,000 passengers would be impacted as it had to cancel 220 flights over the May bank holiday weekend, due to the strike.
More than a dozen Ryanair flights between Ireland and France on Monday were cancelled, according to arrival and departure schedules published by Dublin Airport. An Aer Lingus flight to and from Paris has also been cancelled.
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The cancellations are due to industrial action being taken by air traffic control staff in France.
In a statement on Saturday, Michael O’Leary, Ryanair chief executive, criticised the impacts of the ongoing strikes by French ATC staff as “completely unacceptable”.
“The French authorities have told us we must cancel another 220 flights, most of them are overflying France,” he said.
“That means another 40,000 passengers on the May bank holiday weekend are going to have their flights cancelled because of French ATC strikes,” he said.
Mr O’Leary said Ryanair wanted to “apologise sincerely” to passengers whose flights were disrupted, adding where flights were cancelled the airline had emailed customers to notify them.
“It is unfair that flights from the UK to Spain or from Italy to Portugal are being cancelled simply because a bunch of French air traffic control units want to go on strike,” he said.
“We respect their right to strike, but if they want to strike, cancel the French flights, protect the overflights,” he said.
