Irish holidaymakers face potential chaos next week as Ryanair has warned that up to 600 flights could be cancelled due to strikes by French air traffic controllers.
Irish passengers planning October getaways have been warned to brace for disruption as Ryanair has flagged the potential cancellation of up to 600 flights due to strikes in France.
Air traffic controllers in France, represented by the Syndicat Majoritaire des Controleurs Aeriens union, are set to stage industrial action from October 7 to 10 over working conditions.
The strikes, originally planned for September, were postponed amid political unrest but now threaten to affect tens of thousands of travellers, including many from Ireland. The walkout won’t just hit flights bound for France, but also those travelling through French airspace.
Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary warned that almost all of the 600 flights at risk involve overflights across France, with an estimated 100,000 passengers affected.
He told Sky News: “That’s about 100,000 passengers who will have their flights cancelled needlessly next Wednesday and Thursday. On any given day at the moment, we operate about 3,500 flights and about 900 of those flights cross over French airspace and about two-thirds of those, around 600 flights, are cancelled every day there’s an air traffic control strike. The UK is the country whose flights get cancelled most because of the geographic proximity to France.”
The airline has called for overflights to be exempt from industrial action, arguing that disruption in these cases undermines the free single market. While countries such as Spain and Greece offer such protections, France currently doesn’t.
Irish travellers are being urged to check the status of their flights at least 48 hours before departure and to plan for waits at airports. Ryanair recommends downloading airline apps for the latest updates and considering lighter baggage to minimise delays at check-in during periods of strike action.
Passengers whose flights are cancelled or delayed due to airline-controlled issues may be entitled to compensation. However, industrial action by airport staff or air traffic controllers is considered outside the airline’s control, meaning compensation would not typically apply in these cases.
The upcoming strikes follow a summer of travel disruption, including a Belgrade air traffic control walkout that delayed 99 Ryanair flights and affected over 17,000 passengers in just two days. With France’s major airports handling hundreds of thousands of passengers daily, next week’s industrial action could prove particularly disruptive for holidaymakers heading from Ireland to Europe.
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