Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary warned that next week, 100,000 passengers may have their plans disrupted due to the strike by the air traffic controllers' union in France.
Members of the French air traffic controllers' union (Syndicat National des Contrôleurs du Trafic Aérien - SNCTA) will begin a strike on Tuesday, October 7, and continue it until the morning of Friday, October 10, due to a dispute over wages and working conditions.
In addition to the obvious impact on flights to France, the strike will also affect those flights that use French airspace to reach their final destination, known as "overflights." This includes flights to many countries, including Spain, Italy, and Greece.
According to O'Leary, in the first two days of the strike, Ryanair expects to be asked to cancel about 600 flights — almost all of which will be overflights.
"This is about 100,000 passengers whose flights will be unnecessarily canceled next Wednesday and Thursday," he said.
"On any given day right now, we operate about 3,500 flights, and approximately 900 of them pass over French airspace; about two-thirds of those — roughly 600 flights — are canceled each time there is a strike by air traffic controllers."
O'Leary urged affected passengers to report any violations to transport ministers and the European Commission using the airline's special website ATCruinedourholiday.com.
A number of other European airlines, such as EasyJet, British Airways, Vueling, and Lufthansa, may also face issues. The full extent of the strikes next week is still unknown, as airlines typically avoid canceling flights until the last moment.
