Ryanair asks EU Commission to safeguard flights from strikes.

Ryanair Delivers Petition to EU Commission Demanding Protection from ATC Strikes

By Julia Payne

BRUSSELS (Reuters) -Ryanair delivered a petition signed by 1.1 million EU passengers to the European Commission on Wednesday, demanding overflights be protected from air traffic control (ATC) strikes, particularly in France, to help avoid travel disruption.

Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary told reporters that due to France’s location and airspace, the cancellation of flights merely passing through French airspace during local strikes was particularly disruptive and polluting. “The next French strike is due June 6-7 and our flights are full and we’re being forced to cancel flights. There is a simple solution for this. Other member states have laws that protect overflights,” O’Leary said, referring to Italy, Spain and Greece.

Ryanair said it called on the Commission to protect 100% of overflights, require a 21-day notice of strike action and a 72 hour notice of employee participation in ATC strikes, among other measures. O’Leary added the EU should extend the carbon emissions tax on flights to transfers and long-haul flights that are far more polluting.

Europe’s biggest airline said in a statement that the first five months of the year had 57 days of ATC strikes that forced airlines to cancel thousands of flights. The rate of strikes was 10 times more than in 2022. “France in particular uses minimum service laws to protect their domestic and short-haul flights while disproportionately cancelling overflights,” the statement said.

O’Leary said, “The Commission has a lot of soft power. They can lean on France. It doesn’t need to be a law. We don’t want legislation because it’ll take 25 years here in Brussels … does the EU have anything in its armoury to embarrass France? We met with the French government and asked for reforms but we got shrugged shoulders.”

Other News:

• A former California educator who left to open her own school says the biggest issues in public education right now is indoctrination.
• Speaker McCarthy’s debt ceiling deal may cost him his post in this edition of the Daily Feed with Tom McGrath.
• Over Memorial Day weekend, a group of teens were videotaped assaulting off-duty Marines.
• Colorado State Senator Ted Harvey, who’s also the chairman of the committee to defeat the president, says Ron DeSantis has some catching up to do.
• (Reuters) – Polish mobile games developer Huuuge plans to release its first PC games in the second half of the year including…
• HONG KONG (Reuters) – ByteDance’s short video app Douyin said on Wednesday that it has held preliminary talks with Dalian Wanda Group…
• AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – The chairwoman of the Dutch parliament on Wednesday called on Twitter to act to stop threats being broadcast on…
• JAKARTA (Reuters) – A British consortium that includes mining giant Glencore will invest about $9 billion in Indonesia’s mining and electric vehicle…

*As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases