Growing increasingly frustrated with the multitude of strikes by air traffic controllers in France, Ryanair has begun calling on passengers to sign a petition to pressure the European Commission (EC) to take action to ensure authorities allow overflights of France during the walkouts. French air traffic controllers plan four days of industrial action this week, from Monday until Thursday, as part of nationwide strikes in protest of French president Emmanuel Macron’s plan to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64. The four days of strikes come in addition to the 13 days of walkouts by French ATC so far this year.
“While we respect the right to strike, it is completely unacceptable that Europe’s passenger flights that overfly France are repeatedly delayed or canceled by French ATC strikes,” Eddie Wilson, chief executive of Ryanair Group’s Irish ultra-low-cost airline, said during a press conference in Brussels on Monday. “The European Commission has to do something about it,” he stressed, warning that if nothing gets done, the coming summer season might prove more chaotic than summer 2022. “Last summer was the worst in terms of delays we experienced in Europe,” he told AIN. “The ATC system is stretched, flights are fully booked, and airlines will not have spare capacity to deal with continuous disruptions due to strikes by French ATC.”
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