Airline passengers face further disruptions across Europe

Airline passengers around Europe face further flight disruptions tomorrow as European Air Traffic Controllers (ATC) strikes continue.

Ryanair issued a statement this morning warning passengers of strike action in Italy on January 29th and France on January 30th. The website advised passengers to monitor their online flight status as strike action could cause "significant flight delays and possible further cancellations".

“We sincerely apologise to all passengers whose travel plans will be disrupted by these unjustified ATC strikes,” said a Ryanair spokesman. “We again call on the EU Commission to remove the ‘right to strike’ for ATC workers, in accordance with other essential services such as police and fire services.”

So far, only three Ryanair flights to Ireland have been affected by the strikes - a flight from Milan Bergamo, and two flights from Faro, Portugal, are expected to arrive at least two hours late.

A spokeswoman for Aer Lingus said the airline has had minimal disruption to services and no cancellations. Aer Lingus is currently awaiting an update from air traffic control regarding tomorrow's flights. Meanwhile, the Irish Aviation Authority has reported normal air traffic services, although it warned that airline disruption could cause "knock on delays" to flights between Ireland and continental Europe.

EasyJet issued a warning on its website that an industrial strike would take place in France beginning late in the evening of Wednesday 29th and finishing in the early hours of Friday 31st. It added that all airlines operating to and from Paris airports had been requested to reduce their flights by 20 per cent.

The European Transport Workers’ Federation (ETF) has called for its second European Action Day on Thursday, January 30th, during which Air Traffic Controllers (ATCOs) and employees of the Air Traffic Management (ATM) will hold walkouts, rallies, meetings and strikes across Europe. ATCOs and ATM are calling on the European Parliament to halt its “cost cutting” to jobs in the European sky industry.