French air traffic controllers could cause chaos for tens of thousands of Britons heading to Spain during April – amid the Easter and school holidays – as they are reportedly set to strike EVERY DAY this month!
They are preparing to walk out every day, in a move that will disrupt thousands of passengers flying between Britain and Spain – because flights use France’s airspace for transit.
Ryanair were forced to ground 230 flights last month because of French strikes over the pension age increase, with further 120 flights affected, reported the Times.
Airlines have to compensate passengers for long delays or cancellations under European passenger laws, but are unable to recover penalties from air traffic authorities when airspace is blocked.
Tension between airlines and French controllers has been a recurring issue, escalating in 2023 as the controllers joined strikes over planned changes to the retirement age.
Diverting flights, via Germany, then down to Spain, has been mooted – but that would incur extra fuel costs.
Would passengers be prepared to dig further into their already depleted wage packets to pay this extra charge, if it prevents cancellation of their flights and ultimately their holiday?
Year-on-year the French ATC Operators have caused mayhem through their strike action, affecting tens of thousands of travellers. Now, riots will impact even more on flights and travel.
Ryanair has called on the European Union to protect passenger flights and keep European Union skies open during air traffic control strikes this summer.
According to the airline, overflights over French airspace are cancelled, while French flights are protected.
“France protects domestic flights using a minimum service law, while non-French flights are cancelled,” said Ryanair. “The EU won´t protect flights that pass over French airspace, so millions of non-French passengers face flight cancellations during repeated French air traffic control strikes,” the airline said in a statement.
The President and CEO of the Spanish airport authority Aena, Maurici Lucena, expressed his confidence that Spanish airports will respond to the influx of passengers, this Easter and summer, when record numbers of movements and operations are expected to be broken again, prior to the French air traffic controllers strike.
Lucena said the operation of Spanish airports and their co-ordination with the Ministry of Interior has always been impeccable and indicated Aena is not aware of a single complaint from passengers for this reason.
