Ryanair Calls for Swift Action to Squelch Future Strikes by EU ATC Unions

Ryanair called on the French Government and European Commission to take swift action to prevent travel disruptions or holidays cancellations as a result of strikes by French Air Traffic Control unions scheduled from Monday, 25 January to Wednesday, 27 January, which are the 40th strike action by French Air Traffic Controllers since 2009.

Ryanair has since announced the cancellation of a large number of its flights on its website and on Social Media.

On Monday 25 January, Ryanair issued a strong statement asking for action by the European Commission and European Parliament to take action “to prevent these ATC strikes causing mayhem for Europe’s consumers.”

The airline pointed out that this would be the 40th ATC strike in France since 2009, and would “again result in thousands of flights being cancelled and hundreds of thousands of consumers having their flights cancelled and/or delayed.”

“It’s disgraceful that Europe’s consumers repeatedly have their holiday and travel plans disrupted or cancelled by the selfish actions of ATC unions, who use strikes as a first weapon rather than a last resort. French ATC unions plan to strike from tonight
until Wednesday morning – their 40th strike since 2009 – which will impact hundreds of thousands of European consumers and throw their travel plans into chaos,” says Ryanair CMO Kenny Jacobs

To urge action by the European government, Ryanair has launched a Keep Europe’s Skies Open online petition, “offering European consumers the opportunity to join its call to protect Europe from repeated blackmail and disruption by ATC unions.”

Ryanair proposes that the European Commission and European Parliament take action to:

1 – Remove the right to strike from Europe’s ATC unions, in the same way that Europe’s various police and military forces are not allowed to strike. In the USA, ATC unions are prohibited by law from striking. European ATC workers can still join unions, organise and advance their concerns through mediation or binding arbitration, which will not involve strikes or closing Europe’s skies.

or

2 – Allow other European ATCs to manage flights over French airspace during ATC strikes, which would minimise cancellations and disruptions for Europe’s consumers who need to cross over French and Spanish airspace.

Ryanair hopes to raise one million signatures in this EU wide petition, which it can present it in Brussels and “urge the EU Commission and the EU Parliament to finally take action.”

 

“It’s high time the French Government, European Commission and European Parliament took action to prevent Europe’s families and ordinary air travellers having their hard earned holidays or travel plans regularly disrupted by these ATC unions closing the skies over Europe. If the EU won’t listen to the airlines, perhaps they’ll listen to Europe’s citizens,” says Jacobs.

Marisa Garcia

After working for sixteen years in aviation, specializing in aircraft interiors design and aviation safety equipment, and getting hands-on with aircraft cabins in hangars around the world, Marisa Garcia turned her expertise into industry insight. She has been reporting on aviation matters since 2014. Every day, she's putting words to work.

Recommended Articles

5 Comments

  1. […] Ryanair has called on the European Union to set stronger policies which would prevent future strikes by European ATC in future. To illustrate the need for such policies, Ryanair has pointed out that French ATC unions have organised 40 strikes since 2009, and asked EU citizens to sign a petition which the airline will then bring before the European Parliamen…. […]

  2. […] Ryanair has improved on time performance for January 2016, highlighting this was despite delays from French ATC strikes. […]

  3. […] of the top items on the agenda was a call for action to address travel disruptions caused by ATC strikes. The group also lobbied for the EC to lower airport charges and eliminate aviation taxes the […]

  4. […] delays were worse last year because of strikes by French air traffic controllers, leading to delayed flights or cancellations which affected tens of thousands of […]

  5. […] has previously called for legal action by the European Commission to squelch what it characterises as a historic excess of strikes by French ATC unions. This is […]

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

%d bloggers like this: