Ryanair boss explodes at EU's Air Traffic Control - 'f***ing sky doesn't belong to France'

The CEO of Ryanair has hit out at the European Union for not protecting "overflights" from French strike action. Michael O'Leary says the bloc's air traffic control unit has not sufficiently protected flights through France's airspace, without taking off or landing there, from being impacted by the country's ongoing industrial action. Rules preventing airlines from flying over France while its air controllers are on strike has been a bugbear for operatives including Mr O'Leary for years, due in part to the country's position in Europe and the frequency of the action.

A planned strike earlier this month by France's central air traffic controller union, SNCTA, was postponed at the last minute, spelling chaos for a number of airlines prepared to axe flights, with Ryanair estimating up to 600 would have been impacted in one day. "The f***ing sky doesn't belong to France," Mr O'Leary told The Telegraph. "[But] everybody's trying to fly around France, which means that even the flights that do operate then are hugely delayed and blocked up."

Ryanair has lobbed Ursula von der Leyen and the European Commission to overhaul the rules and allow overflights during air controller strikes, but to no avail. The "unacceptable" situation is made worse by comparison elsewhere - with minimum service legislation protecting overflights during industrial action in Greece and Italy, the CEO said.

"You have a bunch of useless politicians wringing their hands and it all seems a bit complicated," he said. "And they're surrounded by useless civil servants, none of whom want to do anything or get off their fat ar*** and reform this scandal."

So far this year, 11 million Ryanair passengers have suffered "avoidable" disruption because of French air traffic control strikes, Mr O'Leary added.

"The French, of course, do exactly the opposite," he said. "They protect the local French flights ... but the overflights are disproportionately cancelled."

"We've been campaigning, together with other airlines, for many years," he added. "But of course, [the European Commission] being the spineless politicians that they are, they keep retreating to this trope which is: the right to strike is a national power.

"We don't want to stop the French air traffic controllers striking. They're free to strike if they want, but they should cancel the French flights, and Europe should protect the overflights."

The chief executive also called on French politicians to ensure their air traffic control units are fully staffed, describing the problem as twofold, in terms of wider inaction from the European Commission and more localised failure on the ground in France.

Ryanair has also launched a petition calling for passengers to be protected from disruption caused by French workers, with more than 2 million people signing the call to action which alleges that there have been more than 99 days of air traffic control strikes forcing airlines to cancel overflights since 2023.