Ryanair repeats calls for ‘urgent’ European action after 1,100 more flight cancellations

Ryanair repeats calls for ‘urgent’ European action after 1,100 more flight cancellations
Copyright REUTERS/Regis Duvignau/File Photo
By Alice Cuddy
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The Dublin-based carrier says more than 1,100 flights have been cancelled for the second month running.

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Budget airline Ryanair has repeated calls for the European Commission to take “urgent action” over air traffic control strikes after it says it was forced to cancel some 1,100 flights last month.

The Ireland-based carrier said 210,000 of its customers saw their flights cancelled in June due to the strikes and staff shortages in the UK, Germany and France.

This compared to 41 cancellations in June last year.

The results were similar to those posted by the airline in May, when around 1,000 flights were cancelled compared to 43 in the same month the previous year.

“Ryanair calls for urgent action by the EU Commission and European governments to ameliorate the effect of ATC strikes and staff shortages in the UK, Germany and France from disrupting the travel plans of millions of Europe’s consumers this summer,” Chief Marketing Officer Kenny Jacobs said in a statement.

When asked for details of what the airline wants from EU leaders, Ryanair referred Euronews to statements last month in which it said that decisive action was needed 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.”

And Ryanair isn’t the only airline to feel the impact of the strikes.

Last month, rival airline easyJet revealed that it had cancelled almost 1,000 flights in May due to air traffic control strikes, while the chief executive of British Airways-owner IAG said the strikes pose more of a threat to European airlines this year than a rise in fuel prices.

Hours after Ryanair published the June results, pilots for the airline voted in favour of a one-day strike next week over management’s approach to transferring them between bases, meaning thousands more holidaymakers could face disruptions.

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