Ryanair cancels 400 flights due to strike by French air traffic controllers

Ryanair has canceled 400 flights due to strikes by air traffic controllers in France. Most of these flights went to or came from Ireland, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy and Spain. The airline is reporting this on Twitter.

While we respect the right of French unions to strike, it must be the French domestic flights that have been cancelled.

But instead, it’s mainly about flights, says the low-cost airline. These relate to aircraft that only fly over French territory, but do not land there. These flights are also not possible, due to the lack of adequate oversight of French airspace due to the strike.

Last week, Irish Airways did indeed petition the European Commission over dissatisfaction. Ryanair said the more than 1.1 million passengers who signed the agreement were “sick of having their holidays ruined because flights were unnecessarily canceled during the French strikes by air traffic controllers.”

Tuesday marks the 14th time that French trade unions have organized national strikes against government pension plans. It is expected that between 400 thousand and 600 thousand people will participate in the protests. This will be down from the turnout of more than a million people earlier this year.

The expected effects of Tuesday’s strikes varied. For example, the national rail company SNCF assumed that the schedule would “be disrupted a bit”. The metro network in and around Paris will operate normally. On the other hand, a third of the flights departing at Paris Orly Airport have been cancelled.