The airline apologised to passengers for the inconvenience.
Ryanair has blamed one of its flights landing in the wrong country on a French air traffic controller strike.
In a statement to JOE, a spokesperson for the airline said that the flight scheduled to fly from Dublin to Faro in Portugal on Friday was diverted to Malaga in Spain because it missed Faro Airport’s curfew.
The spokesperson stated that this was due to disruption from the French strike and that it was “entirely beyond” Ryanair’s control and “impacted all airlines flying to/from/over France that day”.
“To minimise disruption to passengers, Ryanair quickly arranged for a coach to transport passengers from Malaga Airport to their final destination,” the spokesperson added.
“Ryanair sincerely apologises to passengers for the inconvenience caused as a result of this unjustified French ATC strike.”
Earlier in the week, Ryanair announced it was cancelling 420 flights on Friday due to the strike by France’s SNCTA air traffic control union over pay and recruitment issues.
The airline said the cancellations affected 80,000 customers.
“It is inexcusable that passengers who are not even flying to/from France are disrupted because they overfly French Airspace at a time when French laws protect French domestic flights,” Ryanair Operations Director Neal McMahon said in a statement on Thursday.
“It is time that the EU step in and protect overflights so that European passengers are not repeatedly held to ransom by a tiny French ATC union.”
Grève vendredi 16 septembre.
Après 6 mois de négociations, le SNCTA déplore l'absence de réponses concrètes :
👩🦰aux recrutements 2023 et suivants pour maintenir un haut niveau de service public
🇪🇺à l’application des règlements européens pour compenser l’inflation pic.twitter.com/lnUU33e1w9— SNCTA (@SNCTA) September 14, 2022
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