Airlines warn of further strikes this summer
Ryanair has again joined other European airlines in calling for the EU to prevent further air traffic control strikes after revealing that it has been forced to cancel 70 flights due to today’s industrial action in France.
French air traffic controllers will work at reduced capacity for at least 24 hours from this morning, disrupting flights that use French air space as well as those taking off and landing in France.
British Airways and easyJet have warned that their flights are likely to be affected.
EasyJet said it has also been informed of industrial action today by ground handling staff at Lisbon airport, between 05:00 and 17:00 local time.
Ryanair said it was the fifth strike by French ATC workers in two months.
"This unjustified strike action demonstrates how a tiny French union can once more hold Europe’s skies to ransom with thousands of flights from the UK, Ireland, Spain and Italy – none of which either take off or land in France – cancelled and hundreds of thousands of passengers’ travel plans again disrupted," it said.
Ryanair has repeated its call for the EU to require French ATC unions to engage in binding arbitration instead of strikes to resolve their claims, or to allow other ATCs to operate overflights over France with ATC operators are on strike.
Airlines for Europe (A4E), which was created in January and counts IAG, easyJet and Jet2 among its members, said further strikes were ‘highly likely’.
"2016 will be a record year for ATC strikes and there is nothing to stop further strike action this summer," it said.
"We are shocked at yet another infringement of people’s rights. On behalf of European consumers we call on the European Commission and governments to act now and protect the rights of millions of European travellers affected by this repeated and disproportionate industrial action.
"They need to work to minimise the impact of strikes on passengers," said A4E managing director Thomas Reynaert.
The latest ATC strikes in Greece, Italy, Belgium and France in March and April caused over 2,000 cancellations among A4E members and more than than 16,000 hours of delays, it said.
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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