European flights disruption to continue, say airlines

European airlines have warned that air traffic controller strikes in France will cause further travel disruption for passengers this year. French air traffic controllers have joined a series of strikes called by unions this month against President Emmanuel Macron’s unpopular pension reforms. The disruption has rippled across Europe because air traffic controllers are responsible for planes flying over their airspace, as well as those landing and taking off from French airports. EasyJet CE Johan Lundgren said on Wednesday that the airline was “very badly hit” because UK flights often had to cross French airspace to reach other parts of Europe. “It is something we have to plan for, and we are doing our best to try to mitigate it but, of course, it is very difficult . . . sometimes you only get 24 hours’ notice,” he said. Michael O’Leary, the Ryanair CE, said this summer would be “materially better” than in 2022 when staff shortages led to an unprecedented set of delays and cancellations. But he said airlines still faced a “very difficult” challenge, mainly because of the “scandal” of delays and cancellations caused by the French strike. Europe’s skies are already congested because of the closure of Russian and Ukrainian airspace and Eurocontrol, the EU’s air traffic manager, warned in January of “major” pressure as airlines returned to close to their pre-pandemic flight schedules. O’Leary added that he expected strikes to continue into April, which would affect the Easter getaway. He said Ryanair had to cancel 60 flights scheduled on both Wednesday and Thursday at short notice. Europe’s largest low-cost airline also cancelled 230 flights last weekend. DGAC, the French civil aviation authority, said domestic and regional flight schedules were more likely to be affected than long haul because of the increased disruption involved in rescheduling the latter.<br/>