By Holly Williams
More than 30,000 passengers have had their travel plans disrupted after low-cost airline Ryanair said it was forced to cancel more than 170 flights because of French air traffic control strikes.
The Irish carrier said the cancellations on Thursday and Friday will affect flights to and from France, and also flights over the country to destinations such as the UK, Greece, Spain and Ireland. Ryanair passengers can check the status of their flight on the Ryanair website.
Ryanair chief executive Michael O鈥橪eary renewed calls on EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to take 鈥渦rgent action鈥 to reform European Union air traffic control (ATC) services in light of the disruption, which comes at the start of the European summer holidays.
Mr O鈥橪eary said: 鈥淥nce again, European families are held to ransom by French air traffic controllers going on strike.
鈥淚t is not acceptable that overflights over French airspace en route to their destination are being cancelled/delayed as a result of yet another French ATC strike.
鈥淚t makes no sense and is abundantly unfair on EU passengers and families going on holidays.鈥
Ryanair has long-campaigned for an overhaul of ATC services across Europe.
It wants the EU to ensure ATC services are fully staffed for the first wave of daily departures, as well as to protect overflights during national ATC strikes.
鈥淭hese two splendid reforms would eliminate 90 per cent of all ATC delays and cancellations, and protect EU passengers from these repeated and avoidable ATC disruptions due to yet another French ATC strike,鈥 Mr O鈥橪eary added.
Ryanair also said on Wednesday it had been hit by the recent conflict in the Middle East, and it cancelled more than 800 flights last month.
It is among those to have cancelled and rerouted flights amid the conflict between Israel and Iran, as well as continued attacks in Gaza.
Last week, flights were halted at Dubai airport in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as passengers were told to expect further delays and cancellations.
Ryanair said it still operated more than 109,000 flights in June, indicating that fewer than 1 per cent of flights were affected.
The business carried 19.9 million passengers in June, representing a 3 per cent increase on the same month last year.
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