Ryanair launched a scathing attack on European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Friday, September 12, warning of mass flight cancellations on September 17 and 18 due to a new strike by French air traffic controllers.
The Irish airline said it had already been warned that it could have to cancel up to 700 overflights over France during the 48-hour strike, affecting more than 125,000 passengers.
Ryanair accuses the Commission President of having “done nothing” over the past two years to implement proposals that would protect flights that simply pass through French airspace without landing at French airports. The company, along with the European aviation industry (Airlines 4 Europe – A4E), has asked the Commission to allow the European body Eurocontrol to manage overflights during national strikes.
According to Ryanair, Ursula von der Leyen is wrongly claiming that Air Traffic Control (ATC) is a “National Competence”, while overflights are a Single Market Competence and therefore subject to the protection of the EU Commission.
The airline states that when the Draghi Report was published in September 2024, it highlighted the multi-billion dollar cost of Air Traffic Control inefficiencies and flight delays, and that “despite promising urgent action on the Draghi Report, Ursula von der Leyen has done nothing in the last 12 months to reform the EU’s troubled Air Traffic Control system.”
As it points out, European airlines are united in calling for two effective reforms on which no action has been taken:
to require national air traffic control services to be fully staffed for the first wave of morning flights and
for the European Commission to protect overflights during national air traffic controller strikes.
“This would not infringe on the right of French air traffic controllers to strike, but would protect flights that are simply flying over France on 17 and 18 September,” the airline stressed.
Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary said in a stern tone: “Over the past five years, President von der Leyen has proven useless in promoting competitiveness or efficiency in Europe. Under her leadership, European consumers suffer the highest environmental costs (while excluding non-European airlines from their fair share of Environmental Taxes), the most burdensome regulation and the least efficient air traffic control services in the world.
So far, she has proven useless in implementing air traffic control reform and we call on her again today: Protect overflights next week or resign! If you are not prepared to protect the Single Market, then go back to Germany, to allow someone in charge to deliver efficiency and competitiveness and protect the Single Market for air travel.”
