Irish passengers facing flight disruptions as French air traffic controller strike hits European travel

Ryanair says 5,000 passengers will be affected

Up to 5,000 passengers are facing flight cancellations on Thursday as a strike by French air traffic controllers hits European travel. Picture: Peter Byrne/PA Wire

Up to 5,000 passengers are facing flight cancellations on Thursday as a strike by French air traffic controllers hits European travel. 

Ryanair says that it is facing the cancellation of 35 flights on Thursday, affecting around 5,500 passengers across its European routes, including flights from Ireland. 

"We recognise the rights of French air traffic controllers to strike but we don't recognise that overflights - flights travelling over France but not landing in France are also being cancelled," said Ryanair chief executive Michael O'Leary. Mr O'Leary said that flights from Ireland to Italy, Brussels to Spain, and the UK to Portugal, are among those affected. 

The distruptions are expected to be much larger next week as French union Sncta, which is the largest union of air traffic controllers, holds a strike in a pay dispute. Next week's strike are due to begin on Tuesday.

“This additional strike is incomprehensible to us,” especially since a new three-year agreement with controllers was concluded less than a year ago, Pascal de Izaguirre, who heads France’s aviation lobby group, said in Paris on Tuesday.

The last round of ATC strikes, which took place in July, triggered the cancellations of 1,500 flights, affecting more than 1m passengers and costing airlines €120m, Mr de Izaguirre said. The economic impact would be greater this time, he said.

Ryanair said in July it would end operations at three French airports and reduce flights to the country during the winter in response to the government’s decision to tax air travel. 

Additional reporting by Bloomberg