The cancellations will affect passengers travelling to and from Paris Beauvais Airport. The exact level of disruption will depend on how many air traffic controllers heed the union’s call
Ryanair has been forced to cancel nearly 100 flights leaving UK airports today (June 6) due to ‘inexplicable’ strike action. The budget airline is cancelling flights from Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Edinburgh and Belfast, with thousands of British holidaymakers set to be affected by the disruption.
Yesterday, Ryanair bosses attacked the European Commission for being unable to prevent the strikes sweeping across Europe, with French Air Traffic Controllers shutting off Paris Beauvais Airport at short notice. This will be the 84th day of strikes since 2023, while the industrial action grinds on.
A Ryanair spokesperson said: “It is inexplicable that Ursula von der Leyen and the EU Commission have failed to take action to protect EU passengers’ Freedom of Movement during these repeated French ATC strikes. As a result, we have been forced to cancel almost 100 flight to/from Paris Beauvais Airport tomorrow, Thurs 6th June, unfairly disrupting thousands of EU passengers’ travel plans at short notice.”, reports BirminghamLive.
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The spokesperson continued: “EU passengers are sick and tired of suffering unnecessary cancellations during ATC strikes. The EU Commission must now act upon Ryanair’s Protect Passengers – Keep EU Skies Open petition of more than 2.1m EU passengers’ signatures which Ryanair delivered directly to the EU Commission offices in May, Sept and Jan last.
ational ATC strikes that are completely unrelated to them and its time that Ursula von der Leyen and the EU Commission do something about it.”
Ryanair currently operates to Paris Beauvais Airport from Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, Edinburgh and Belfast. It is not yet clear which flights have been cancelled, so passengers will have to check before flying.
Paris Beauvais Airport has also issued a travel warning to passengers, saying: “Major disruptions are expected in the flight schedule. Please contact your airline for any information on the status of your flight.”
The air traffic controllers’ union at Paris’ Orly airport has also filed a strike notice, covering June 11th, June 12th and also on June 13th.
The exact level of disruption will depend on how many air traffic controllers heed the UNSA-ICNA union’s call, but a strike two weeks ago by the same union saw 70 percent of flights in and out of Orly airport cancelled. Other French airports were unaffected.