Ryanair’s chief executive has warned that 100,000 passengers could see their flights disrupted next week due to an air traffic control union strike in France.
Michael O’Leary told the Money blog the industrial action would cost Ryanair around £20m.
While the company could afford to swallow the cost, he said, it would ultimately be customers who will be worse off, and they should complain.
Members of the SNCTA will go on strike from Tuesday 7 October until the morning of Friday 10 October over a dispute about pay and working conditions.
While it will obviously affect flights heading to France, it will also affect those that use French airspace to reach their final destination – these are called overflights.
This includes flights to and from lots of places including Spain, Italy and Greece.
O’Leary called for overflights to be protected from strike action, saying disrupting them is an abuse of the free single market.
Bonuses to rise for Ryanair staff spotting oversized baggage
Ryanair to increase size of underseat free bag by 20% following EU proposals
Ryanair raises fares after profits hit by lower ticket prices
On the first two days of the strikes, he said Ryanair was expecting to be asked to cancel about 600 flights – with almost all of them overflights.
“That’s about 100,000 passengers who will have their flights cancelled needlessly next Wednesday and Thursday,” he said.
“On any given day at the moment, we operate about 3,500 flights and about 900 of those flights cross over French airspace and about two thirds of those, around 600 flights, are cancelled every day there’s an air traffic control strike.
“The UK is the country whose flights get cancelled most because of the geographic proximity to France.”
Read more:
Flight delayed or cancelled? These are your rights
Bonuses to rise for Ryanair staff spotting oversized baggage
While he accepted the rights of French workers to strike, he said Eurocontrol, a civil-military organisation that supports air traffic management across Europe, could step in to look after the airspace and keep flights operating.
“It wouldn’t stop the French striking, they have the right to strike and we accept that but they should be cancelling local French fights, not flights from the UK to Spain or from Italy to Ireland. This is a fundamental breach of the single market,” he said.
He called on the government to “put pressure” on the EU Commission and the French government to protect overflights during industrial action.
“We bloody well demand that our overflights are protected. If British citizens today going to Italy, or we have Spanish visitors wanting to come to London, they should not have their flights disrupted or cancelled,” he said.
He claimed: “They [the government] don’t care about the travelling public and they won’t get off their arses and demand that their overflights be protected.”
Read all the latest Money news here
A Department of Transport spokesperson said: “Airspace is sovereign, and it is for each state to decide how best to manage their own.
“We know strikes can cause disruption for passengers and airlines and airports have robust resilience plans in place to minimise their impact.”
O’Leary encouraged affected passengers to complain about any disruptions to transport ministers and the European Commission using the airline’s dedicated ATCruinedourholiday.com website.
Several other European airlines, such as EasyJet, British Airways, Vueling and Lufthansa, could also face disruptions.
The full impact of the strikes next week is still unknown, as airlines tend to avoid cancellations this early before the action begins.
EasyJet told Money it was still waiting for information from the authorities to understand the impact of the strikes.
“We will update customers directly and continue to monitor the situation,” it said.
If you are due to travel during the strike, it’s worth keeping an eye on the status of your flight on the airline’s website or app.
