Ryanair has launched a petition aimed at getting one million signatures from passengers in order to force the European Commission to take action to prevent further disruption from French air traffic control strikes.
The airline says the EU needs to take steps to ensure overflights of France are allowed during French ATC strikes, in order to guarantee the fundamental freedom of movement.
“The European Commission has done nothing about this,” said Ryanair chief executive Eddie Wilson, during a press conference in Brussels.
“They need to do something about it,” Mr Wilson said.
Mr Wilson said there have so far been 13 days of strikes this year by French ATC and a fourteenth is now scheduled.
He said one million passengers have so far been impacted and 80% of those were not flying to France.
That is because during strikes, French ATC allow flights to and from French airports, but not overflights, he claimed.
“It is simply outrageous what is going on,” Mr Wilson added.
Mr Wilson said 200 of the more than 4,000 Ryanair flights that have so far been cancelled due to the strikes were to and from Irish airports.
He added that the situation also leads to longer routes, which to date has resulted in 1.1m kilogrammes of additional fuel being burned, producing 4,000 extra tonnes of CO2.
Mr Wilson said in Spain, Greece and Italy, when there are air traffic control strikes, overflights are allowed and flights to and from domestic airports are impacted.
He said the issue is not about the financial impact on Ryanair, but the disruption to passengers from a problem that is entirely solvable.
“We are left with families at airports whose holidays are destroyed,” he said.
Mr Wilson said the EU Commission could mandate for overflights and manage then through European air traffic control body Eurocontrol.
He added that other countries can use the equipment needed to do this, so technically it is not a problem.
The Ryanair boss said Ursula Von Der Leyen needs to take steps to resolve the problem.
Ryanair wants action to prevent disruption to flights
Source: Viral Trends Report
0 Comments