(News Bulletin 247) – After a 38th day of strikes by the French air traffic control (ATC) service in the space of three months, the company Ryanair blames Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, for ‘ its inexcusable failure to protect the fundamental right of EU citizens/visitors to freedom of movement, by irresponsibly allowing EU skies to be repeatedly closed during strikes’.
According to the company, these strikes have led to the cancellation of more than 627,000 Ryanair passenger flights in the first three months of 2023, disrupting travel plans, diminishing essential intra-European connectivity and harming tourism.
Ryanair assures that these passengers could easily be protected without hindering the right to strike of French ATC unions with the following measures:
– Protect French overflights during ATC strikes (using minimum service laws) like in Greece, Italy and Spain
– Allow other European ATCs to manage flights over France during the French ATC strike
– Mandate French ATC unions to engage in binding arbitration before calling a strike
– Make mandatory prior notification of participation in the strike
‘While we have no difficulty with French trade unions exercising their right to strike, we expect President von der Leyen to do her job and defend and protect the fundamental right of citizens/visitors to the EU to freedom of movement, which it and its college of commissioners have inexplicably failed to do,’ said a spokesman for the company.
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