Latest news with #OscarPuente
Travel Daily News
4 days ago
- Business
- Travel Daily News
Ryanair
Ryanair launches its 'League of Delays,' urging passengers to pressure EU Transport Ministers to fix national ATC staff shortages. Ryanair launched its ATC 'League of Delays', highlighting those EU states whose short staffed and mismanaged ATCs are causing the worst delays for Ryanair flights and passengers so far this year from 1 Jan to 26 May 2025. ATC LEAGUE OF DELAYS Flights Delays* Passenger Delays* Transport Minister France 15,634 2,814,120 Philippe Tabarot Spain 11,576 2,083,680 Oscar Puente Germany 4,367 786,060 Patrick Schnieder Portugal 2,601 468,180 Miguel Pinto Luz UK 1,642 295,560 Heidi Alexander *Delays refer to Ryanair flights and passengers from 1 Jan to 26 May 2025 2024 was a record year for ATC delays despite 5% fewer flights in Europe than pre-Covid. This was due to National ATCs being mismanaged and short staffed, especially for the first wave of morning flights. While ATC delays soared in 2024, ATC fees to airlines and passengers rose by double the rate of inflation (+35% since Covid). The EU Commission and Govts have taken no action to fix their shoddy ATC services and ATC delays will now be even worse in Summer 2025. Ryanair has long campaigned for reform to ensure ATCs are fully staffed but ATC delays are getting worse. EU Transport Ministers are responsible for their national ATC services. They must not be allowed to preside over another year of record ATC delays due to mismanagement and staff shortages. Ryanair calls on all passengers to visit the 'Air Traffic Control Ruined Your Flight' webpage and use the template email to complain directly to their national Transport Minister, and demand that these lazy politicians take action to properly staff ATC services and avoid unnecessary ATC delays this summer. Ryanair's Michael O'Leary said: 'Our ATC 'League of Delays' exposes Europe's worst ATCs for delays due to mismanagement and staff shortages from Jan to May 2025. We will hold EU Transport Ministers responsible for allowing such unnecessary and avoidable ATC delays to repeatedly occur. National ATCs are made aware of airline schedules almost 12 months in advance, so there is no reason for them not to adequately staff up to manage this traffic. This is especially important for the first wave of morning flights as any morning delays knock on to flights throughout the rest of the day. Fixing Europe's ATC staff shortages as well as protecting overflights during national ATC strikes would eliminate 90% of EU's ATC delays but Transport Ministers won't take any action. Ryanair calls on passengers to visit the 'Air Traffic Control Ruined Your Flight' webpage to demand that their national Transport Ministers take action to properly staff their national ATC services and avoid record ATC flight delays this summer.'
Irish Times
6 days ago
- Business
- Irish Times
Holidaymakers face air traffic delays this summer
Air traffic control delays will hit more passengers this summer, Ryanair warned on Friday as it named the French authorities as the biggest cause of hold-ups to its flights. The Irish airline and other carriers have been campaigning for several years for reform of air traffic management in the EU, which remains under each member state's control. Delays will be 'worse in summer 2025″ as the European Commission and individual governments have not acted to fix their 'shoddy air traffic control servces', Ryanair predicted. Mismanagement and short staffing caused a record number of air traffic control-related delays last year, despite there being 5 per cent fewer flights than before Covid-19, the airline said. READ MORE Ryanair named France at the top of its 'air traffic control league of delays' for the first five months of this year. More than 15,600 of its flights there were delayed, hitting 2.81 million of its passengers, according to its figures. Ryanair blamed the country's transport minister, Philipe Tabarot, as he is the government member responsible for air traffic control. Spain followed with 11,576 delayed flights, affecting two million passengers, with the Irish carrier naming minister, Oscar Puente, as the politician responsible. Germany, Portugal and the UK, made up the five worst offenders that the airline named. Ryanair argued that European transport ministers should not be allowed preside over another summer of air traffic control delays. Michael O'Leary, its chief executive, pointed out that airlines inform national air traffic control authorities of schedules almost 12 months in advance. 'This is especially important for the first wave of morning flights as any morning delays knock on to flights throughout the rest of the day,' he said. Tackling staff shortages and protecting overflights during strikes in member states would 'eliminate 90 per cent of EU's air traffic control delays but transport ministers won't take any action', he added.
Daily Mail
06-05-2025
- Daily Mail
Copper cable thefts bring key Spanish rail route to a standstill with thousands stranded - days after country was thrown into chaos by blackout
Thousands of rail passengers in Spain have faced delays after copper cables used in the signalling system of a high-speed line travelling south from Madrid to Seville were stolen at five locations, authorities said. The theft, which happened late Sunday, affected dozens of trains travelling between Madrid and the southern Andalusian cities of Seville, Malaga and Granada as many people were returning home to Spain's capital after a holiday weekend. Copper prices are high on global markets, meaning criminals stand to collect big sums of cash from selling the material. Transport minister Oscar Puente said in an X post that he expected the rail line would fully return to its normal schedule by 4pm local time. Many travellers crowded Madrid's Atocha station on Monday seeking information about their trains from rail employees and screens with updated departure times. By 9am, Alberto Valero and his family had spent hours at the station because of delays on services to Seville, where they were headed. Mr Valero was on holiday in Spain from Mexico, and expressed frustration about the lack of information. 'We're here with tourists from everywhere - France, Portugal,' Mr Valero said. 'Everyone is at a loss for what to do because of the total disarray.' The cable theft took place at five points on the high-speed line in Toledo in central Spain, Mr Puente said on X, adding that Spain's national police force was investigating the incident. Spain's high-speed rail network has expanded rapidly and travels through large stretches of the country's little-populated countryside. The incident came a week after a blackout in Spain and Portugal saw high-speed train traffic in Spain ground to a halt, stranding many passengers for several hours. Described as 'catastrophically bad', the outage grounded flights, sent roads into gridlock as traffic lights failed, and left entire cities without power or telecommunications. A British holidaymaker was forced to give birth to a premature baby in the garden of a Costa del Sol hotel during the outage. The tourist sought help from a receptionist after her waters broke. The hotel worker tried to call a taxi - but ended up helping her give birth and even practiced CPR on the new-born baby who didn't have a pulse. The drama happened at the Puente Real Hotel in Torremolinos. The unnamed British tourist was rushed to hospital after emergency medical responders reached the hotel and took her away in an ambulance with a police escort. She was 30 weeks pregnant when she went into labour. The baby was said to be in a 'critical' condition this morning. The outage caused a frenzy across the Spain, with the interior ministry deploying 30,000 police officers countrywide to maintain security in an evening of darkness. Huge queues formed outside shops and banks as residents, with tourists desperately seeking to stockpile essentials and take out cash. Rows of cars were pictured lining up at petrol stations as people hoped to fill up their vehicles and fuel cans, with expats detailing how they have tried to power generators to keep their homes going. The partly state-owned grid operator's chief of operations told reporters last week that grid instability caused the Spanish and French electricity interconnection through the Pyrenees mountains to split, resulting in a general collapse of the Spanish system. Sanchez said that the country had lost 15GW of electricity generation in five seconds - equivalent to 60 per cent of national demand - and later thanked France and Morocco for providing Spain with power. While the exact cause remains unclear, REN, Portugal's grid operator, said they believed a 'rare atmospheric phenomenon' was behind the outages. Experts say the blackout is likely due to a combination of factors including Spain's reliance on green energy and 'anomalous oscillations' in power lines.
CNA
05-05-2025
- Politics
- CNA
Spain opens probe after cable theft halts high-speed trains
MADRID: Spanish police opened an investigation on Monday (May 5) after thefts of copper cables halted high-speed trains from Madrid to the south, leaving thousands of passengers trapped in trains or stranded at stations. The disruption took place on a busy day as travellers were returning home after a long weekend in Madrid and before the start on Tuesday of a week-long annual fair in the southern city of Seville, a major tourist draw. It came a week after a blackout in Spain and neighbouring Portugal also brought trains to a halt on the Spanish high-speed rail network, the second longest in the world after China's. No firm cause for the outage has yet emerged. The transport ministry said the cable theft took place on Sunday in the central province of Toledo at five points within a few kilometres of each other on the high-speed line linking Madrid and Seville. The theft disrupted travel between Madrid, Seville, Malaga, Valencia and the southern city of Granada, affecting more than 10,000 passengers and at least 30 trains. Service was gradually returning to normal on Monday. Transport Minister Oscar Puente called the cable theft a "serious act of sabotage" in a post on X. "It was quite a coordinated action. Whoever did it knew what they were going for," he added. Spain's Civil Guard police force has opened a probe into the "theft of copper cabling" to "clarify what happened and identify those responsible", the interior ministry said on social media. The price of copper has soared in recent years, triggering thefts of cables that use the metal in train and telecommunications networks around the world. The head of Spain's main opposition Popular Party, Alberto Nunez Feijoo, said images of "thousands of Spaniards trapped on trains" without water were "unbecoming of the fourth largest economy in the eurozone".
05-05-2025
Copper cable theft in Spain delays thousands of high-speed rail passengers
MADRID -- Thousands of rail passengers in Spain were hit with delays after copper cables used in the signaling system of a high-speed line traveling south from Madrid to Seville were stolen at five locations, authorities said Monday. The theft, which happened late Sunday, affected dozens of trains traveling between Madrid and the southern Andalusian cities of Seville, Malaga and Granada as many people were returning home to Spain's capital after a holiday weekend. Copper prices are high on global markets, meaning criminals stand to collect big sums of cash from selling the material. Transport Minister Oscar Puente said in an X post that he expected the rail line would fully return to its normal schedule between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. local time (1200 GMT and 1400 GMT). Droves of travelers crowded Madrid's Atocha station Monday seeking information about their trains from rail employees and screens with updated departure times. By 9 a.m, Alberto Valero and his family had spent hours at the station because of delays on services to Seville, where they were headed. Valero was on vacation in Spain from Mexico, and expressed frustration about the lack of information. 'We're here with tourists from everywhere — France, Portugal,' Valero said. 'Everyone is at a loss for what to do because of the total disarray.' The cable theft took place at five points on the high-speed line in Toledo in central Spain, Puente said on X, adding that Spain's national police force was investigating the incident. Spain's high-speed rail network has expanded rapidly and travels through large stretches of the country's little-populated countryside. The incident came a week after a blackout in Spain and Portugal grounded high-speed train traffic in Spain to a halt, stranding many passengers for several hours.
