RYANAIR has warned of “excessive flight delays” today due to European ATC staff shortages.
Over a fifth of the airline’s first wave departures – 119 of 574 aircrafts – were delayed this morning.
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Some of the departing flights delayed in Dublin Airport currently include Leeds, Newcastle, London, Liverpool, Brussels, Milan, Malaga, Birmingham, Barl, Split and Bucharest.
Ryanair flights arriving into the capital which are delayed include Faro, Paris, Palma, Kosice, London, Barcelona, Lodz, Nice, Berlin, Ibiza, Milan, Alghero, Lublin, Riga, Amsterdam, Liverpool, Gran Canaries, Frankfurt, Tenerife, Bratislava, Brussels and Newcastle.
Other airlines with delayed flights today also include Aer Lingus, Qatar Airways, Icelandair, Turkish Airlines, Dan Air and American Airlines.
Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary has blasted underperforming ATC services.
He urged repeated flight delays due to ATC mismanagement are “unacceptable”.
Industrial action in France frequently impacts travel in Europe, limiting not only flights into France but also across the country’s airspace.
A Ryanair spokesperson said: “Ryanair, Europe’s No.1 airline, on Thur 11 Jul apologised to its passengers for the excessive flight delays caused by European ATC staff shortages today Thur 11 Jul which are affecting all European airlines.
“ATC services, which have had the benefit of no French ATC strike disruption this summer, continue to underperform (despite flight volumes being five per cent behind 2019 levels) with repeated ‘staff shortages’.
“On Thur 11 Jul, 21 per cent of Ryanair’s first wave departures (119 of 574 aircraft) were delayed due to ATC ‘staff shortages’.
“These repeated flight delays due to ATC mismanagement are unacceptable.
“We apologise to our passengers for these repeated ATC flight delays which are deeply regrettable but beyond Ryanair’s control.”
The budget airline has repeatedly called on the EU Commission and Ursula von der Leyen to take action to protect EU passengers and overflights during repeated French ATC strikes.
They have claimed the French ATC strikes have delayed or cancelled flights of over 1.2million airline passengers.
Ryanair is calling on all passengers to sign their petition with 2,129,875 signatures so far.
Meanwhile, the airline is hosting a careers open day at its global headquarters in Swords, Dublin tomorrow (Jul 12) from 2pm to 4pm.
This event, which will include a general presentation as well as one-to-one sessions, will allow candidates to meet Ryanair’s talented teams.
Those interested will learn about the airline, its growth plans, the unlimited staff travel benefits, excellent salary packages and fantastic career opportunities.