Ryanair CEO sounds alarm on serious flight disruptions
Ryanair’s CEO warns of major travel disruptions amid mounting aviation challenges.
Navigating the turbulent aviation industry is quite a challenge.
While the industry is complex, the economic and political circumstances make it even knottier. It doesn’t help that the aviation space is vulnerable to weather conditions.
It seems unbelievable that airline companies successfully manage between 100,000 and 130,000 flights per day. According to Flightradar24, these numbers include commercial flights, cargo, private aviation, military operations, and training operations.
Over the last few decades, the airline industry has exploded, and we have gotten used to it.
However, just like there are bumps in the road, there are clouds in the sky and from time to time, severe disruptions impact the aviation space.
These disruptions, including flight cancellations, are not only frustrating and inconvenient for travelers, but also cause huge expenses for airlines, airports, and hotels, writes Patricia Simillon for Amadeus IT Group, a technology company that provides software for the global travel and tourism industry.
Moreover, a major airline IT industry company, T2RL, estimates that disruptions cost the airline industry $60 billion per year.
According to Amadeus, the most common reasons for flight disruptions include:
- Weather
- Strike action
- Third-party issues
- Crew logistics
- Natural disasters
- Civil unrest
- Local anomalies
- Mechanical and technical problems
- Operational issues
- Health
In the most recent development, the head of a European low-cost airline, Ryanair, sounded the alarm about upcoming potential disruptions. Image source: Ksenz-E/Shutterstock
Ryanair CEO warns flight cancellations could impact 100,000 passengers
Ryanair's chief executive officer, Michael O'Leary, said 100,000 flyers could have their flights disrupted next week because of an air traffic control union strike in France.
O’Leary told SkyNews that on the first two days of the strikes, Ryanair (RYAAY) projected it would be asked to cancel around 600 flights, the majority of which are overflights (a term for an aircraft passing over a foreign territory without landing).
That's about 100,000 passengers who will have their flights canceled needlessly next Wednesday [Oct. 8] and Thursday [Oct. 9], he said.
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O’Leary further explained that the UK will mostly be most affected by these disruptions.
On any given day at the moment, we operate about 3,500 flights and about 900 of those flights cross over French airspace and about two thirds of those, around 600 flights, are canceled every day there's an air traffic control strike.
"The UK is the country whose flights get canceled most because of the geographic proximity to France."
French air traffic control union plans strike
French air traffic control union SNCTA confirmed a three-day strike from October 7 to 9 that is expected to cause widespread disruption in operations, according to BTN Europe.
The strike was originally planned for September 18 and was supposed to last 24 hours. However, it was postponed after the French government under Prime Minister François Bayrou collapsed on September 8.
The union is renewing its demands for better pay and working conditions for air traffic controllers. The strike, which will last from “the morning of 7 October until the end of night duty on the morning of 10 October,” is likely to result in extensive flight disruptions and delays across France, as well as French overflights.
O'Leary is mainly concerned with the overflight disruptions, arguing that overflights should be protected from strike action.
Ryanair CEO claims abuse of the free single market
The Ryanair CEO went on to say that the disruption of overflights constitutes an abuse of the single market. While O’Leary respects the French employees' rights to strike, he urges Eurocontrol to act and help avoid flight disruptions.
It wouldn't stop the French striking; they have the right to strike and we accept that, but they should be canceling local French fights, not flights from the UK to Spain or from Italy to Ireland. This is a fundamental breach of the single market, he said.
O’Leary further urged the government to pressure the EU Commission and the French government to keep overflight operations during labor actions.
We bloody well demand that our overflights are protected. If British citizens [are] today going to Italy, or we have Spanish visitors wanting to come to London, they should not have their flights disrupted or canceled, he said.
According to O’Leary, Ryanair could lose around £20 million ($26.95 million), and while the airline could afford it, in the end, customers will be impacted the most. Ryanair CEO urged them to file a complaint with transport ministers and the European Commission.
The flight disruptions will also impact other European airlines, including EasyJet, British Airways, Vueling, and Lufthansa.
Related: Spirit Airlines gets a major lifeline amid flight cancellations
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