Walsh and O’Leary unite to fight ATC strikes

IAG and Ryanair are joining forces in their fight to stop Air Traffic Control strikes ‘wreaking havoc’ on airlines.

Their respective chief executives, Willie Walsh and Michael O’Leary, are planning to submit a complaint to the European Commission.

The complaint will argue that by not adequately protecting flights over France, EU law is infringed.

The airline bosses say 2018 is shaping up to be one of the worst years ever for ATC strikes in Europe.

So far this year, airlines in the lobbying body A4E have been forced to cancel nearly 5,000 flights as a result of the strikes, directly impacting around 784,000 passengers across Europe.

Millions of other travellers have been affected by flight delays caused by airspace diversions and residual backups.

Eurocontrol projects total delay minutes for 2018 will be up by 53% compared to 2017 as a result of strikes and capacity shortages – 14.3 million in 2018 versus 9.3 million minutes in 2017.

Walsh said: "IAG and Ryanair are planning to submit a complaint to the European Commission as ATC strikes represent the biggest challenge for our industry. They are destroying European air traffic and having a huge impact on consumers.

"It’s a really frustrating cause of disruption that affects all airlines but in particular has a significant negative impact on Spain’s tourism and economy. Continuous strikes by ATC staff in Marseille have a disproportionate impact on those airlines flying from Barcelona because they control flights over most of the Mediterranean airspace. For Vueling this means that 50% of its flights are affected. The EU must act now to protect the rights of the consumers and prevent long term damage to European economies."

O’Leary added: "These disruptions are unacceptable, and we call on the Governments, and the EU Commission to take urgent and decisive action to ensure that ATC providers are fully staffed and that overflights are not affected when national strikes take place, as they repeatedly do in France.

"Europe’s ATC providers are approaching the point of meltdown with hundreds of flights being cancelled daily either because of ATC strikes or because Europe’s ATC don’t have enough staff. The situation is particularly acute at weekends where British and German ATC providers are hiding behind adverse weather and euphemisms such as ‘capacity restrictions’ when the truth is they are not rostering enough ATC staff to cater for the number of flights that are scheduled to operate.

"Urgent action must now be taken by the UK and German Governments, and the EU Commission, otherwise thousands more flights and millions of passengers will be disrupted, particularly in the peak months of July and August, unless this ATC staffing crisis is addressed."

A4E is proposing a mandatory 72-hour individual notification period for employees wishing to strike, protection of overflights while ensuring it does not come to the detriment of local services, and a guarantee on minimum services to be provided.

Consumers are also urged to sign A4E’s online petition www.keepeuropesskiesopen.com. The petition will be presented to the relevant authorities in Brussels and EU capitals by the end of this year.