Ryanair cancels 400 flights throughout Europe amid air traffic controller strike 

Ryanair has cancelled 400 flights throughout Europe, leaving passengers stuck on aircrafts with ‘no decent food or drink’ as air traffic control workers go on strike.

Staff walkouts in France have forced hundreds of flights to be grounded, the budget airline said. 

Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary said: ‘Again today, we’ve had to cancel 400 flights, all of these have been cancelled because of the French ATC strikes. 

‘The vast majority of these flights are overflights. They are not going to France. They are flying from Britain to Spain, from Portugal to Germany, from Italy to Ireland.’

Air traffic controllers are needed to make contact during overflights – where planes are flying through the French airspace.

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A person tuck on a Ryanair plane as flights are cancelled amid ATC strikes in France 

Staff walkouts in France have forced hundreds of flights to be grounded, the budget airline said 

People affected by the cancellations and delayed took to Twitter to voice their frustrations. 

One user wrote: ‘Very confused, sat on flight FR455 FEU-NCL with delays due to French air strike. Already delayed by 2 hours but being told we’re now going to be sat not moving for a further 2 hours?

‘Why put us on the plane? Please communicate what the situation is. @Ryanair also doesn’t help the situation when two thirds of the refreshments are out of stock. Not hot food etc? Just crisps and fizzy pop.’

While Haleh Paul told MailOnline that her 19-year-old son’s flight, and that of his friend, was cancelled, leaving them both stranded in Paris. He was due to fly home on Monday but received an email on Sunday saying the flight was cancelled and the next available one wasn’t until Thursday.

Her son has a disability and only brought enough medication and hearing aids for the long weekend he had planned.

She said: ‘I and the other set of the family had to scramble around from the UK to change their flight and find alternative accommodation for them. 

‘I am sure I am not the only one in this boat. But when you plan for a long weekend as a young adult and it ends up being a week, with no extra medication, hearing aid batteries or change of clothes, it’s very worrying.’

In a recorded statement, Mr O’Leary said: ‘I’m speaking to you this morning Tuesday from our Dublin operation centre with the bad news that again today we have had to cancel just about 400 flights of the 3200 flights we had scheduled to operate today.

‘All of these flights have been cancelled because of the latest French ATC strike.’

He expressed frustration that overflights are being cancelled rather than French domestic flights.

‘We respect the right of French ATC to strike but it should be French domestic flights or local flights to France that get cancelled,’ Mr O’Leary said.

‘There’s no reason why flights to Orly and flights to Charles de Gaulle are not being cancelled.

‘It’s absolutely indefensible that flights going from Ireland to Italy, from Poland to Portugal, or from Spain to Germany are being cancelled simply because the French want to prioritise their domestic flights and cancel all the overflights.’ 

He added that the French have alternatives to travel within the country, as they can take its high-speed train service or use motorways. 

Last week, Ryanair submitted a petition calling for the European Commission, led by Ursula von der Leyen, to insist that France protects overflights during French ATC strikes. 

The petition has so far been signed by over 1.1million of Ryanair’s ‘very fed up’ customers. 

The CEO added: ‘Spain, Italy and Greece already protect these overflights so that when their national ATC unions go on strike, the overflights are not disrupted. 

‘We are calling on the commission today for action.’ 

As part of Ryanair’s call to action, the airline revealed that more than 4,000 flights have been cancelled so far this year as a result of ATC strikes, ‘mainly overflying France’. 

In his call to the commission, he added: ‘Europe is a single market. In a single market the overflights and skies over Europe must be protected. Take action.’ 

Jan Dent told MailOnline: ‘My son, his wife and our 21-month-old Granddaughter were supposed to be on an afternoon flight today from Manchester to Malaga.

‘We live in Spain so don’t get to see them as often as we would like to so we’re looking forward to 10 days together.’

She added: ‘They are booked to fly again on Thursday but it means changing airport, parking, car hire etc.’ 

Other people facing flight cancellations and delays took to Twitter.

‘Absolute joke ours has been cancelled,’ she wrote. ‘Now been transferred Manchester to East Midlands with a 9-hour delay. No idea what to do about transfers, can’t get in touch with the holiday company as it’s too busy and yet no compensation apparently – livid!!!’ 

While other people on Twitter were confused as to why it seemed to be just Ryanair having this issue, asking if planes could simply fly around France. 

One wrote: ‘Why isn’t any other airline complaining about this or are they just going around French air space with extra fuel?’

One person whose flight was cancelled took to Twitter to voice her frustrations. ‘Absolute joke ours has been cancelled,’ she wrote. ‘Now been transferred Manchester to East Midlands with a 9-hour delay

While another said: ‘ Don’t fly over France, can’t you navigate around? Or is that too difficult?

‘If my exist on the M25 is closed I just go around the back route, do you need me to help you navigate a way out of this mess?’ 

Air traffic controllers in France, as well as members of the French national rail company SNCF, have been striking in protest against proposed pension reforms by Macron.

His reforms would see the retirement age in France increased from 62 to 64 years old.

It would also force workers to contribute to the pension system for longer, as state pensions in the country are financed by a payroll tax.

Indeed, the public are not just angry at Macron for increasing the retirement age, as he used a special presidential decree (Article 49.3) to pass his proposals through the National Assembly without approval.

This has been perceived as undemocratic, with outraged civilians determined to make themselves heard in response.

Civilians and workers also argue that, if he is using Article 49.3 to increase the retirement age now, there is nothing to stop him doing so again in the future.

Protests have been ongoing since January 2023.