The air traffic controller strikes that are taking place periodically in France have forced Ryanair to cancel more than 3,000 flights until the end of March. The Irish low cost airline is the airline most affected by the strikes, according to data from Eurocontrol, as it is also the airline that moves the most routes and passengers in Europe. In addition to the canceled flights – the company operates an average of 2,500 daily flights – protests by French controllers have caused delays in 332 of their flights each day of the strike. They are followed, by number of flights affected, by Air France, easyJet, Vueling and British Airways.
“There is also a chain effect, so that each flight canceled or delayed due to these stoppages impacts others; Thousands of passengers have been affected throughout Europe, in addition to causing economic damage to the companies,” says Elena Cabrera, Ryanair’s country manager in Spain. Eurocontrol estimates that some ten million passengers have suffered the consequences of these strikes and 30% of flights in Europe have suffered incidents on each day of strike.
The situation is even more serious, Cabrera points out, if one takes into account that a large part of the affected trips has neither destination nor origin in France. “These are flights between European countries that have to fly over French airspace, it is a central country for aviation; We respect the right to strike but we ask that minimum services be set to protect these overflightsâ€, Cabrera emphasizes.
Domestic flights in France are protected by minimum services, but not overflights, as is the case in Spain or Italy. In this way, a plane that covers the Spain-Germany route could be affected by these strikes. Ryanair has urged the EC to intervene so that France applies this measure. “We have also launched a citizen petition for the EC to act; to date we have collected more than 540,000 citizen signatures, but we need one million to activate the initiativeâ€, continues the Ryanair board.
Concern in the aviation sector for the disruptions caused by these protests is maximum. A few days ago, the ALA airline association requested the intervention of the Government and Europe to solve the problem. The summer season could be compromised by this situation, they argued.
“It is our maximum concern,†says Cabrera. For the moment, the strikes are maintained and new strike days are called for this April 28 and May 1. “We have done our homework, we have added fourteen more planes this summer in Spain and we have increased routes, but we are encountering these incidents,” he concludes.
