BREAKING: Ryanair forced to cancel 400 flights

As announced by Ryanair’s CEO Michael O’Leary, the Irish budget airline has been forced into cancelling around 400 flights this Tuesday, June 6.

In a video message on Twitter, he said: “”Again today, we’ve had to cancel 400 flights, all of these have been cancelled because of the French ATC strikes. The majority of these flights are overflights and are not going to France.”.

Michael O'Leary: ''Again today, we've had to cancel 400 flights, all of these have been cancelled because of the French ATC strikes. The majority of these flights are overflights and are not going to France.'' pic.twitter.com/rBaF4Jtgby

— Ryanair (@Ryanair) June 6, 2023

Industrial action by air traffic controllers in France means that not only flights departing or arriving at national airports are affected. Any international flight entering French airspace must coordinate with the country’s controllers.

Today’s strike in France is scheduled to end at 7 am tomorrow, Wednesday 7.

“400 Ryanair flights cancelled today due to the latest French ATC strike, the vast majority of which are overflights to/from Ireland, the UK, Germany, Italy and Spain (not France)”, tweeted the airline.

400 Ryanair flights cancelled today due to the latest French ATC strike, the vast majority of which are overflights to/from Ireland, the UK, Germany, Italy and Spain (not France)

— Ryanair Press Team (@RyanairPress) June 6, 2023

The airline also said that an online petition containing more than 1.1 million passenger names has been forwarded to the European Commission. It urged other frustrated flyers to add their names to the list.

“We are calling on the EU Commission today to take action and protect overflights and stop the scandal of families having their holidays destroyed because their overflights are being unnecessarily cancelled at short notice due to repeated French ATC strikes”, they wrote in a tweet.

They continued: “While we respect the right of the French ATC unions to strike, it should be French domestic flights that get cancelled, not EU overflights”.

While we respect the right of the French ATC unions to strike, it should be French domestic flights that get cancelled, not EU overflights

— Ryanair Press Team (@RyanairPress) June 6, 2023

Other European nations have similar rules in place that affect aircraft passing through their airspace in the event of any strike action involving air traffic control personnel. These include Spain, Italy, and Greece.

France (and all other EU states) should use Minimum Service Laws to protect overflights during ATC strikes as they already do in Greece, Italy and Spain

— Ryanair Press Team (@RyanairPress) June 6, 2023

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