Latest news with #Eurocontrol
Daily Mirror
5 days ago
- Business
- Daily Mirror
EasyJet demands end to 'very disruptive' summer strike that impacts 70% of flights
Kenton Jarvis, chief executive of the Luton-based carrier, has warned that the industrial action is presenting "unacceptable challenges" - with 70% of flights affected EasyJet's chief, Kenton Jarvis, has slammed the recent French air traffic control (ATC) strikes, labelling them as a source of "unexpected and significant costs for all airlines" and deeming the disruptions "unacceptable challenges". The Luton -based airline's boss expressed his frustration after tens of thousands of passengers faced chaos due to the walkouts by French ATC staff on July 3 and 4 over working conditions. Both flights operating to and from French airports and those scheduled to pass through French airspace were thrown into disarray. Each day, an average of around 3,700 flights in total were delayed and 1,400 were canceled, according to a report from Eurocontrol, the central organisation for air traffic management on the continent. "An ATC strike in France has the potential to impact a third of flights across the continent, showing the disproportionate impact that disruptions in one busy country can have on the European network as a whole," Eurocontrol wrote in its report. Ryanair also felt the sting, with another strike on Wednesday throwing a spanner in the works for the travel plans of 30,000 customers. The airline's boss Michael O'Leary has long been a critic of the French ATC unions. While the unions haven't announced any further action, it's likely there may be more strikes, given the long running nature of the dispute. UNSA-ICNA wants pay rises in line with inflation following a 2023 agreement, as well as more staffing and better working conditions. Mr Jarvis vented: "We are extremely unhappy with the strike action by the French ATC in early July, which as well as presenting unacceptable challenges for customers and crew also created unexpected and significant costs for all airlines." He pointed out that French ATC strikes have been the primary culprit behind easyJet flight delays since the onset of summer. Describing the early July industrial action as "very, very disruptive", Mr Jarvis revealed it led to the cancellation of 660 flights and inflicted a £15 million dent in their finances. With around 70% of easyJet's flights either heading to or from a French airport or traversing France's airspace, the impact is potentially very substantial. Despite having "very strong measures in place to protect our operations" and an improved punctuality record, Mr Jarvis admitted that these efforts fall short when "no measures will cope when French airspace effectively closes". He remarked: "What we have to do is demand that the French government steps in and really works with their ANSP (air navigation service provider) because it has been the worst-performing air traffic control area in Europe, and they get ahead of it and do some long-term measures. "More recruitment into the tower for controllers, protecting over-flying, using AI and data that's available nowadays to improve the life of the controller. We're asking for improved actions, but at easyJet we've made a lot of investment into our resilience." The budget airline easyJet has felt the pinch with a £10 million blow due to the recent surge in fuel costs. The carrier celebrated a headline pre-tax profit of £286 million from April to June. This marks a £50 million boost from the same period last year. EasyJet reported that it transported 25.9 million passengers from April to June, marking a 2.2% increase compared to the same period last year.
Business Insider
5 days ago
- Business Insider
Traveling to Europe this summer? Be prepared to face one long flightmare.
Strikes by French air traffic controllers affected over a million people's travel plans this month — and may be set to continue. Citing understaffing and poor management from a government agency, France's second-largest ATC union, UNSA-ICNA, went on strike on July 3 and 4. Each day, an average of around 3,700 flights were delayed and 1,400 were canceled, according to a report from Eurocontrol, the central organisation for air traffic management on the continent. It is estimated that this cost airlines around 120 million euros, or $140 million. The effects spread beyond France, given the international nature of aviation, and the fact that many neighbors frequently fly over the country. "An ATC strike in France has the potential to impact a third of flights across the continent, showing the disproportionate impact that disruptions in one busy country can have on the European network as a whole," Eurocontrol wrote in its report. It added that Spain was the worst affected, followed by France and the UK. What does this mean if you have travel plans in Europe While the unions haven't announced any further action, it's possible there may be more strikes. France's transport minister, Philippe Tabarot, called the demands "unacceptable" and expressed annoyance that strikes were targeted in the busy summer vacation travel period. UNSA-ICNA wants pay rises in line with inflation following a 2023 agreement, more staffing, and better working conditions. The Irish budget airline, Europe's biggest, canceled 170 flights affecting 30,000 passengers. This all means you should be wary if you're flying to France this summer, or have another journey flying over the country, known as an overflight. If your plan is to travel between two European countries, the continent at least has a strong rail network as an alternative. The Eurostar also links the UK and France. However, European Union legislation about compensation for flight delays absolves airlines when there are "extraordinary circumstances," which include strikes outside their control. Nonetheless, airlines are still obligated to get passengers to their destination on the next available flight. With no deal on the horizon, disruption could occur again. O'Leary has called on EU President Ursula von der Leyen to quit if she can't guarantee protections for overflights during ATC strikes and maintain full staffing during the first wave of departures each day. Meanwhile, British budget airline easyJet saw its stock price fall more than 5% Thursday morning after declaring a £15 million ($20 million) hit due to the strike. That was despite higher profits, although fuel costs also went up. "We are extremely unhappy with the strike action by the French ATC in early July, which, as well as presenting unacceptable challenges for customers and crew, also created unexpected and significant costs for all airlines," said CEO Kenton Jarvis.
The Independent
7 days ago
- The Independent
Ryanair claims French airport strikers wanted ‘time off' amid travel chaos
Ryanair accused air traffic control staff in France of just wanting 'time off' during strike action earlier this summer, which saw thousands of travel plans plunged into jeopardy. One million airline passengers were affected by a French air-traffic control walkout earlier in July, costing airlines an estimated £100m. Eurocontrol, an aviation association, said nearly 3,000 flights were cancelled and more than 7,400 delayed amid the strike action. Ryanair cancelled 718, representing 21 per cent of the total schedule. After the walkout on 3 and 4 July, Ryanair claimed that some French air traffic staff continued to strike or called in sick over the weekend in order to gain additional leave. 'On the Saturday and Sunday, some controllers decided to strike and others rang in sick, which resulted in two more days of cancellations,' said Jade Kirwan, Ryanair communications director, according to The Telegraph. 'They were looking for some time off, so they opportunistically took that weekend. It was an absolute nightmare.' Ryanair said it is concerned that similar action – and sickness claims – could continue throughout the summer, potentially causing more travel chaos for families during the school holidays. 'There is nothing to stop a million passengers being affected this time next week, or the week after or the week after that,' Ms Kirwan added. The low-cost airline has labelled the strikes across Europe, and especially in France, as 'recreational'. 'While we recognise their right to strike, Europe's airlines have repeatedly called on the European Union Commission to protect overflights,' the airline's CEO, Michael O'Leary, said earlier this month. 'It is unacceptable that flights which overfly France, and which could operate without disruption, are needlessly cancelled, simply because the European Commission won't protect overflights, or defend the single market.' Mr O'Leary also claimed that 90 per cent of the mass flight cancellations over the two initial strike days could have been avoided if the EU Commission had intervened. 'What's stopping French air traffic controllers from closing the EU skies again next week or the week after with more of these unjustified recreational strikes?' he added. One in three of all flights in Europe fly to, from, within or over France, making those journeys more susceptible to industrial action by air traffic controllers. In addition to the strikes, passengers have also been affected by airspace closures over eastern Europe and general staff shortages in air traffic control this summer.
The Independent
14-07-2025
- The Independent
The reasons behind Europe's worst air-traffic control crisis in decades
UK holidaymakers face the worst air-traffic control (ATC) issues in 25 years, with 30 million passengers anticipated to be delayed this summer. The problems stem from airspace closures due to the war in Ukraine, chronic staff shortages at ATC centres, and frequent strikes, notably by French controllers. Eurocontrol figures show France accounts for 50 per cent of all European flight delays, with Spain and Germany each contributing 10 per cent. The Covid pandemic significantly impacted the training and recruitment of new controllers, meaning staff shortages will persist through this summer and next. The long-delayed Single European Sky initiative, designed to streamline European airspace, remains a potential solution but its slow implementation suggests ongoing disruption.
The Independent
14-07-2025
- The Independent
What air-traffic control's worst problems for 25 years mean for your flights
UK holidaymakers are experiencing what are said to be the worst air-traffic control (ATC) issues in 25 years – with 30 million passengers expected to be delayed this summer. Airspace closures over eastern Europe and chronic staff shortages at air-traffic control have been exacerbated by strikes by controllers, notably in France. One million airline passengers were hit by a strike by French air-traffic controllers in early July, according to the pan-European aviation coordinator Eurocontrol. Ryanair is now running an online 'ATC League of Delays' which is topped by France, Spain and Germany. The best-performing nation is Ireland, where the airline is based. Ryanair says: 'ATC delays will now be even worse in summer 2025." What does this mean for your holiday schedule – and what are your rights if your flight is heavily delayed or even cancelled? What's the problem with air-traffic control? Capacity is constrained like never before. The number of flights scheduled in Europe is almost back to pre-pandemic levels. According to figures released this month by Eurocontrol, the total is now 98 per cent of summer 2019 levels. But the available airspace has been drastically reduced because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine – whose skies are closed to passenger traffic. Western airlines are banned from Russian and Belarus airspace. As a result, hundreds of flights each day between Europe, the Gulf and Asia are routed through constrained airspace, competing with normal holiday traffic. Summer storms make matters even worse, closing down yet more sectors of the sky. An even bigger and wider problem is a shortage of controllers, especially at 'area control centres' – which look after large chunks of European airspace. Some air navigation service providers (ANSPs), especially in France and Germany, have one post in four unfilled. What is the cause? The Covid pandemic is mainly to blame. A series of issues combined to leave ANSPs chronically short of staff. The deep slump in aviation during lockdowns in 2020 and 2021 hit providers hard. They earn money from each flight that uses their services. As aviation slowed to almost a standstill, revenue fell to a small fraction of normal times. With no clear end to the imposition of tight travel restrictions and consequent reduction in flying, many experienced staff took voluntary redundancy and left the industry. New candidates have not been trained in sufficient numbers to replace the departing staff. Early on, organisations were unwilling to invest in recruitment in such uncertain times. But another important reason is the nature of ATC training. This involves staff working in close proximity to one another, which was not permitted at the height of the pandemic. Selecting and training a controller typically takes 18 months. So even if sufficient controllers were recruited and trained starting now, they would not be in position this summer or next. Ryanair says things are made worse by the 'hopelessly mismanaged' air-traffic control providers in France, Spain, Germany, Greece and the UK. What are the locations where delays are most likely? In the past week, says Eurocontrol, France caused 50 per cent of all delays in the network: 'Hit hard by French ATC industrial action coupled with ongoing capacity and staffing issues. 'This led to severe disruption for passengers, airlines and airports as well as for many air navigation service providers in the network, which had to handle additional demand to limit the overall effects of this disruption.' The next two, Spain and Germany, both contributed 10 per cent of delays, due to 'capacity issues and weather'. Earlier in the year, Eurocontrol revealed the worst area control centre offenders in 2024, together with the contribution each made to the proportion of delays across Europe. There is likely to be a similar picture in the summer of 2025. What is the effect? Flights linking the UK with Spain's Balearic Islands, southern Italy and Tunisia are affected by constraints at Marseille. Eastern France, Switzerland and Italy, as well destinations beyond those locations, are badly affected by staff shortage at Reims. Direct flight routings from the UK to Croatia, Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey and Cyprus are hampered by staffing problems at Karlsruhe in western Germany and Zagreb. And Budapest delays many of the frequent flights between the UK and Romania. Network carriers such as Air France, KLM and Lufthansa are susceptible to delays because so many passengers are connecting through their hubs in Paris CDG, Amsterdam and Frankfurt respectively. With transfer times of an hour or less between flights, a delayed arrival can trigger many missed connections. Ben Smith, chief executive of Air France-KLM, said: 'The shortage of air-traffic controllers [in France] is 20-25 per cent which means many of our flights are going to be delayed.' Low-cost airlines are affected differently. They typically allow only half-an-hour to 'turn" an aircraft between arrival and departure. If there is a delay to the 'first wave' of flights going out in the morning, the impact can reverberate – and worsen – during the day. What is the best strategy to avoid undue delays? When booking on network carriers – including Gulf-based airlines such as Emirates and Qatar Airways – try to allow more than the minimum connection time. On budget airlines, the 'first wave' of flights will normally get away eventually; on a recent early departure on the short hop from Gatwick to Strasbourg in eastern France, I was delayed an hour waiting for an air-traffic control slot. A similar wait on the return leg can mean that even UK domestic flights are delayed, if the plane is stuck abroad. Early to mid-afternoon can be relatively unaffected, because many airline build in 'fire breaks' designed to allow them to make up time. This also has the advantage that UK airports are much quieter than during the first wave. But later in the day, there is a risk that air-traffic control delays can lead to flight cancellations if the destination – or starting point – has a curfew on night flights. What about strikes? Summer 2025 has started extremely badly, with Greek, Belgian, Italian and especially French air-traffic controllers flexing their industrial muscles. The strike in France in early July cancelled the flights of 200,000 passengers and is estimated to have cost the airlines more than £100m. One in three of all flights in Europe fly to, from, within or over France, making them extremely susceptible to industrial action by controllers. Can anything be done to sort out this mess? Yes. The Single European Sky (SES) initiative, launched in 1999 would remove national airspace boundaries and rationalise the skies. Far fewer controllers would be needed. Compared with 2004, the European Parliament says SES 'could triple airspace capacity, halve the costs of ATM [air-traffic management], improve safety tenfold and reduce the environmental impact of aviation by 10 per cent'. But the pace of process has been glacial, with obstructions to the removal of barriers by authorities and trades unions in a number of countries. While this lamentably delayed project remains moribund, passengers will continue to be told by pilots, 'We have to wait on the ground here for an hour for a slot'.
