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GROUP CEO OF Ryanair Michael O’Leary has said that the airline must cancel over 200 flights on Monday because air traffic controllers in France are striking.
These cancellations are expected to impact 40,000 passengers who were either flying to France or through its airspace en route to another country.
1 May will be the 51st day of strike action by French Air Traffic Controllers (ATCs).
Previous strike action this year has led to the cancellation of over 3,700 Ryanair flights disrupting 666,000 passengers, the airline said.
In the video posted to Ryanair’s Twitter, O’Leary said the strikes were “completely unacceptable”.
“France is using minimum service legislation to protect its local French flights. But all of the cancellations are then being disproportionately passed on to English flights, Irish flights, Italian flights, Spanish and German flights, this is unfair.”
“France must be required by the EU Commission to protect overflights. It is unfair that flights from the UK to Spain or flights from Italy to Portugal are being canceled simply because a bunch of French Air Traffic Controllers want to go on strike.”
Michael O'Leary: ''We've been notified by the French Aviation Authorities of the 51st day of striking, on Monday May 1st, and that we must cancel another 220 flights, impacting 40,000 passengers..this is unacceptable'' pic.twitter.com/KmAiY9wCrn
— Ryanair (@Ryanair) April 29, 2023
O’Leary added that he respected the workers’ rights to strike but said that it should be domestic French flights that are cancelled if ATCs wish to strike, not international flights.
He apologised to customers who had their flights cancelled and said that Ryanair would try to re-accommodate them.
Over 600,000 people have signed Ryanair’s petition calling for the European Commission to stop French strikes impacting overflights.
When the petition reaches 1 million signatures the airline said it will “submit it to the EU Commission and demand that President Ursula von der Leyen take action”.
A notice asking passengers to sign the petition has been displayed in the Ryanair app for the past several weeks.
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Selective condemnation as per usual. Not a word from our lackeys in government about the imprisonment of Julian Assange
@Ronaldo Blanc: Exactly, or Snowden or Chelsea Manning.
@Ronaldo Blanc: different thing. Assange ain’t no hero, he committed crimes and two independent Investigatory bodies and court systems are holding him.
Russia does not have independent system. Very corrupted. Try to keep up lad.
@Tom Ripley: ones man terrorist is another’s freedom fighter Tom
@Tom Ripley: Assange committee no crimes, was wrongfully accused and is wrongfully held because he exposed WAR CRIMES. Navalny is no hero but is simply a useful mouthpiece for the west to end the Nordstream pipeline project in Europe. He is no hero.
@Tom Ripley: come off it, the only “crime” which Julian Assange was convicted of was the breach of his bail conditions, in the case to extradite him to the USA on the back of sealed secret charges and punish him for revealing the truth through wiki leaks.
In his position I suppose you would just happily wait to be extradited to face trumped up charges in a foreign jurisdiction, with the prospect of being sentenced to 200 years in prison…
@Tom Ripley: … and if the U.S beurocrats are successful in Theo attempts to end the Nordstream pipeline Europe will be forced to pay through the nose 3 times the price for gas from the U.S so it is you who clearly needs to “keep up” Mr. “Ripley”
@Tom Ripley @David cotter @Paul Wrenn @David Van-Standen @Ronaldo Blanc.: Assange was not convicted of any crime. He was not even charged with any crime. He is being held in maximum security Belmarsh prison. He has been held against his will in the UK for over 10 years. He’s a Journalist. He’s being held because of his journalism. He’s a political prisoner. He should be freed immediately to be with his Wife and Children.
@Tom Ripley: He was stitched up by the Americans because he was releasing their dirty secrets. Get with it you dummy and don’t believe everything you see on Fox TV.
@Tom Ripley: Assange, war crimes whistleblower, enemy of the US and UK .
Navalny, western backed useful tool to put an end to Nord Stream Two.
@Ronaldo Blanc: wheres Frances Black on this!!!!
Countries will condemn this in a quick statement but no actions will be taken. That will be it….
@Local Ore: you are absolutely right. Ireland should do more. We should invade Russia.
We worry because it is in the headlines. Those Catalan politicians and community leaders that organised the referendum a number of years ago received lengthy prison sentences by the Spanish and are still in prison. There was uproar at the time but life moves on…….
We could send the health minister over to check it out.
But complete silence from the hypocrites when they lock up Assange who threatens their war crimes and weapons industry sales.
Simon Coveney shakes fist @ clouds!
To be honest this is hypocrisy. Why is the Irish Government not concerned about Julian Assange. Because he compromised American Information! Why are they interested in Navalny ?because it is a chance to take a dig at Russia. Imagine if Putin told the courts in the Uk to release a UK citizen from jail.
Navalny was a business man in Russia before blogging. Ask yourself the question how clean was he? Did he pay all his taxes? Well he got caught. They were nice to him but he went too far. In Ireland he would be called and treated as a Tax Cheat. Why does n’t the Irish government stand up for irish tax cheats when revenue starts prowling?
Yes Bring back the CCCP
And what’s that going to do?
You will know if a comment posted anywhere is that of an Irish person
Patronizing. Try to keep up lad.
@Michael Fitzgerald: Can we have that in english please…
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