11 Million EU Passengers Demand Overflight Protection During Strikes in Ryanair Petition

This is not the first time that European airlines are urging the European Commission to take more action in order to minimize the impact that strikes cause on travel, especially ahead of the peak summer season, AtoZSerwisPlus.com reports.

Such callings came through a statement of the trade group Airlines for Europe (A4E).

Ryanair has considered that ATC strikes in European countries this year had pushed airlines to disproportionately suspend many overflights from Germany, Italy, and Spain, as well as the United Kingdom and Ireland.

The airline has blamed aviation authorities in France for prioritizing the protection of domestic as well as short-haul flights rather than overflights during days that strikes take action.

According to the airline, in several EU countries, taking into account Greece, Spain and Italy, overflights were already protected during ACT strikes, while it called for this policy to be applied across all EU Member States.

“If this means that a greater number of domestic or short-haul flights are cancelled, then so be it, but flights over France must be protected during French ATC strikes,” said Ryanair in a statement.

Ryanair Group CEO, Michael O’Leary, has considered unacceptable the fact that ATC strikes can result in the suspension of a large number of flights in EU countries, while France as well as other EU countries use minimum service laws in order to protect their domestic flights.

“Europe’s passengers are sick and tired of suffering unnecessary overflight cancellations during ATC strikes. The European Commission must now act upon the petition of more than 1.1 million EU citizens and insist that all states protect overflights during national ATC strikes as is already done in Greece, Italy and Spain,” Ryanair CEO said, according to a report of BTN Europe.

The airline urged the Commission to protect 100 per cent of overflights while requiring a 21-day notice of strike action as well as a 72-hour notice of employee participation in strikes of ATC, among others.

At the same time, the commission stressed that it was cooperating with EU Member States in order to assess whether and how service continuity for overlights could be improved when strike actions are called.