“Let’s stop the scandal of people, families having their holidays destroyed because overflights are being unnecessarily cancelled.”
Several flights to and from Dublin Airport throughout Tuesday (6 June) and Wednesday have been cancelled on account of French air traffic control (ATC) strikes.
This comes as unions across France are striking in response to the country’s president Emmanuel Macron signing into law his government’s controversial pension reforms. These raise the state pension age in France from 62 to 64.
According to aircraft flight tracking website Flightradar24, 21 flights to Dublin Airport have so far been cancelled for Tuesday and Wednesday. As well as this, 21 flights from the Irish capital have also been scrapped over the two days.
It is not just flights to and from France that are being impacted by the ATC strike but also flights that fly through French air traffic control space. The industrial action is set to last 36 hours, wrapping up at 6am on Wednesday.
In a video recorded at Ryanair’s Dublin operation centre on Tuesday morning, the airline’s CEO Michael O’Leary called on the EU Commission under Ursula von der Leyen to take urgent action to protect overflights and EU citizens’ freedom of movement during the strike.
PROTECT OVERFLIGHTS – KEEP EU SKIES OPEN pic.twitter.com/dddKN3z5MX
— Ryanair Press Team (@RyanairPress) June 6, 2023
“Flights unnecessarily cancelled”
He explained: “Again today we’ve had to cancel just about 400 flights out of the 3,200 flights we had scheduled to operate today. All of these flights have been cancelled because of the latest French ATC strike.
“The vast majority of these flights are overflights, they’re not going to France. They’re flights from Britain to Spain, from Portugal to Germany, from Italy to Ireland.
“There’s no reason why these overflights are being cancelled during a day when French ATC are on strike.”
O’Leary said that Ryanair respects the right of French ATC unions to strike. However, he added that if they do strike, “it should be French domestic flights or local flights in France that get cancelled”.
“They have alternatives. The French can take the TGV. They can take the motorways. But people flying across France are having their flights unnecessarily cancelled because the European Commission led by Ursula von der Leyen will not take action,” he stated.
“Last week, Ryanair submitted a petition signed by over 1.1 million of our very fed-up customers calling for the Commission to insist that France protects overflights during French ATC strikes.
“Spain, Italy, Greece already protect these overflights so that when their national ATC unions go on strike, the overflights are not disrupted.”
He later added: “Europe is a single market. In a single market, the overflights and the skies over Europe must be protected.
“Let’s stop the scandal of people, families having their holidays destroyed because overflights are being unnecessarily cancelled.”
Meanwhile, in a statement to JOE, an Aer Lingus spokesperson said none of the airline’s flights have been cancelled yet.
“We are operating our schedule as planned today, Tuesday 6 June. However we continue to closely monitor air traffic control strike action in the French region,” they said.
“We will notify customers directly of any changes to their flights. For added reassurance customers can also check the status of their flight on aerlingus.com or via the App.”
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the daa [Dublin Airport Authority] in a statement to JOE advised “all passengers to stay in contact with their airline if their flight is due to fly through French air traffic control space in the coming days.”
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