Air traffic strikes bigger threat than fuel prices in 2018, IAG says

Air traffic control strikes are more of a threat to European airlines this year than a rise in fuel prices, the CE of IAG said Tuesday. Global airlines have slashed their forecast for industry profits in 2018 due to a spike in fuel costs, but in Europe, there is an additional threat to profits from the cost of flight cancellations associated with air traffic control strikes. "From a European context, the thing most impacting is ATC strikes and the ongoing ATC environment which is a mess," IAG CE Willie said. "It's destroying traffic through Europe." A4E has estimated the economic cost of ATC strikes in the EU was E13.4b between 2010 and 2017. Ryanair said earlier Tuesday that ATC strikes and shortages caused it to cancel 1,100 flights in May compared with 43 in the same month last year. <br/>