16 Dublin flights cancelled due to French ATC strike

A total of 16 flights between Dublin Airport and Paris, Biarritz, Nice and Murcia in Spain have been cancelled due to a nationwide air traffic controller strike in France today and tomorrow.

Daa spokesperson Graeme McQueen said the flights included eight departures and eight arrivals.

“As it stands, no cancellations have been confirmed for flights in and out of Cork Airport today,” he said.

“Passengers due to fly to or over mainland Europe today are advised to check directly with their airline for latest updates on the status of their flight.”

Mr McQueen said it was “regrettable” that passengers would be impacted by this action and he encouraged the European Union and member states to look at reforms that would “reduce the unfair and unnecessary impact of these disruptions”.

Ryanair said it was forced to cancel 170 flights, affecting 30,000 passengers, due to the strike action.

The disruption comes at the start of Europe’s summer holidays, one of the busiest travel periods of the year.

The French civil aviation agency DGAC yesterday asked multiple carriers to reduce flights at Paris airports by 40% on 4 July due to the planned strike.

“In addition to flights to/from France being cancelled, this strike will also affect all French overflights,” Ryanair said in a statement today.

Passengers overflying French airspace from the UK to Greece and Spain to Ireland would also be affected, the airline said.

Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary called on European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to take urgent action to reform European Union air traffic controllers’ services.

“Once again European families are held to ransom by French Air Traffic Controllers going on strike. It is not acceptable that overflights over French airspace en route to their destination are being cancelled/delayed as a result of yet another French ATC strike,” Mr O’Leary said.

“It makes no sense and is abundantly unfair on EU passengers and families going on holidays,” he added.

He said he wants Ms von der Leyen to take urgent action to reform EU ATC services by ensuring that ATC services are fully staffed for the first wave of daily departures, and by protecting overflights during national ATC strikes.

“These two splendid reforms would eliminate 90% of all ATC delays and cancellations, and protect EU passengers from these repeated and avoidable ATC disruptions due to yet another French ATC strike,” he added.

Ryanair said yesterday it had been hit by the recent conflict in the Middle East, adding that it had cancelled more than 800 flights last month.

It is among those to have cancelled and rerouted flights amid the conflict between Israel and Iran, as well as continued attacks in Gaza.

Last week, flights were halted at Dubai airport in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as passengers were told to expect further delays and cancellations.

Ryanair said it still operated more than 109,000 flights in June, indicating that fewer than 1% of flights were affected.

It carried a total of 19.9 million passengers in June, representing a 3% increase on the same month last year.