French Strikes Cause Dozens of Flight Cancellations

French air strikes have led to travel chaos in airports all over Europe, with dozens of Aer Lingus and Ryanair flights from Dublin already cancelled.  Passengers travelling between the capital and Barcelona, Lyon, Perpignan, Marseilles, Alicante, Murcia and Basel today are advised to check with their airline as these flights are among 80 that are no longer leaving today. Further strikes are planned for June 3, 4 and 5, so passengers can look forward to thousands more cancellations across Europe throughout the summer. Ryanair spokesman Kenny Jacobs slammed the strike, the sixth by French air traffic controllers in eight weeks, and said the airline has called on the European Commission to do more to prevent strike action in the future.

“Once more Europe’s consumers are being held to ransom by tiny French ATC unions, causing hundreds of thousands of passenger flights to be cancelled or delayed, while the European Commission and French Government sit on their hands." said Mr Jacobs. "As we approach the peak holiday season, European travellers should prepare for a summer of discontent as there is absolutely nothing preventing these selfish unions from staging even more strikes in the coming weeks and months.

Ryanair has even established a petition against the strikes, KeepEuropesSkiesOpen.com, that will be presented in Brussels once it collects one million signatures. In the meantime, passengers are advised to check Aerlingus.com and Ryanair.com to confirm the status of their flight.