Ryanair warns of airspace 'meltdown' if urgent action isn't taken to stop strikes

Ryanair has warned that Europe’s skies risk grinding to a halt this summer as French air traffic control strikes threaten to delay or cancel hundreds of flights heading south this weekend. The airline says that more than 71,000 flights were delayed in May, affecting 200,000 of its passengers, because of ATC shortages and strikes, and accused providers of using “adverse weather” excuses to cover staffing issues. The budget carrier said that the EU is set to treble its delay per flight target of 0.5 minutes, with the 2018 average heading towards 1.5 minutes per flight. Ryanair itself was forced to cancel “just over 1,000 flights, almost all due to ATC staff shortages and strikes” in May, 24 times as many as it cancelled in the same month last year. It said EasyJet, too, cancelled 974, up from 117 last year. “Yet again this weekend, French ATC will strike on Saturday and Sunday leading to hundreds of flights being cancelled, disrupting the holiday plans of thousands of passengers,” said Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary. “Many of these flights don’t even touch France, yet they will be disruptive because French ATC requires airlines to cancel overflights while they protect French domestic routes. Europe’s airlines are also suffering thousands of ATC delays/cancellations because of staff shortages especially in German and UK ATC providers. "These disruptions are unacceptable, and we call on the UK and German Governments, and the EU Commission to take urgent and decisive action to ensure that ATC providers are fully staffed and that overflights are not affected when national strikes take place, as they repeatedly do in France.”<br/>