Dublin, July 4 - Ryanair, Europe’s largest low-cost airline, has unleashed a fierce critique of European air traffic control (ATC) services, accusing national transport ministers of gross mismanagement that led to widespread flight delays in 2024 and threatens even worse disruptions in the summer of 2025. The airline has taken the extraordinary step of publishing the email addresses of transport ministers from several European countries, urging passengers to directly demand accountability for what it describes as avoidable delays caused by chronic understaffing and poor planning. This provocative move is part of Ryanair’s ongoing campaign to pressure the European Commission and national governments to reform ATC systems, which it claims are failing millions of passengers. The situation has been exacerbated by a fresh wave of French air traffic controller strikes in July 2025, compounding the chaos already experienced earlier in the year.
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| An IA Illustrated Image of French, Spanish, and German Ministers of Transport, published by Ryanair - Source: Ryanair X account |
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The airline’s frustration is rooted in data it compiled for 2024, which revealed that ATC-related issues caused significant disruptions to its operations. According to Ryanair, France was the worst offender, with 35,100 delayed flights affecting 6.3 million passengers, followed by Spain with 32,700 delayed flights impacting 5.9 million passengers. Germany, Greece, and the United Kingdom also ranked high, with 18,700, 5,000, and 3,380 delayed flights, respectively, collectively affecting millions more. Ryanair contrasts these figures with countries like Ireland, Slovakia, Denmark, Belgium, and the Netherlands, which reported minimal delays, 70 in Ireland and 210 in Slovakia, for example, attributing their success to better staffing and management. These disparities, Ryanair argues, demonstrate that the issue is not a systemic European problem but rather a failure of specific national ATC services to adequately prepare for known flight schedules.
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| Ryanair published what's called the "ATC League of Delays". It's a table showing the number of delayed flights and the number of passengers affected by each delay. The table was published on Ryanair's media page on July 2nd. |
The situation in France has reached a critical point with air traffic controllers launching a two-day strike on July 3 and 4, 2025, just as the summer holiday season begins. The strike, led by the UNSA-ICNA union, the second-largest air traffic control union in France, and supported by the USAC-CGT union, protests understaffing, outdated equipment, and a toxic management culture within the French Civil Aviation Authority (DGAC). The DGAC has mandated significant flight reductions, with 25% of flights canceled at Paris airports (Charles de Gaulle, Orly, and Beauvais) on July 3, escalating to 40% on July 4. Southern airports like Nice, Bastia, and Calvi face up to 50% cancellations, while Lyon, Marseille, Montpellier, Ajaccio, and Figari see 30% reductions. These cancellations have disrupted travel for nearly 300,000 passengers, with Ryanair alone canceling 468 flights and EasyJet axing 274. The strike also affects overflights, causing delays across Europe for flights passing through French airspace to destinations like the UK, Spain, Greece, and Ireland. Ryanair’s CEO, Michael O’Leary, has condemned the strikes as “intolerable,” accusing controllers of “holding European families to ransom” during peak travel periods. Earlier in 2025, French ATC strikes added to the disruption.
On April 25, 2025, a strike led by the UNSA-ICNA union, despite a last-minute agreement by the larger SNCTA union to withdraw, resulted in significant cancellations: 75% of flights at Paris Orly, 55% at Charles de Gaulle, 45% at Nice and Toulouse, and 65% at Marseille. This followed a pattern of labor unrest, with strikes in late May 2024 grounding around 70% of flights, though an “Olympic truce” during the 2024 Paris Games temporarily paused industrial action. The persistent issues—understaffing, outdated equipment, and management disputes—have fueled Ryanair’s campaign, which highlights that national ATCs receive airline schedules nearly a year in advance, leaving no excuse for staffing shortages, particularly for critical morning flight waves that, when delayed, cause cascading disruptions throughout the day.
‼French Air Traffic Control Strikes‼
— Ryanair (@Ryanair) July 3, 2025
Latest update from Michael O’Leary: pic.twitter.com/zBAN1dyo0Y
Ryanair’s CEO, Michael O’Leary, has been vocal in condemning what he calls “hopelessly mismanaged” ATC services, particularly in France, Spain, Germany, Greece, and the UK, which together accounted for over 90% of Europe’s ATC delays in 2024. He points to the European Union’s Single European Sky (SESAR) initiative, launched to streamline and modernize airspace management, as a failure despite two decades of investment. O’Leary argues that national ATCs, operating as state monopolies, lack accountability and have no incentive to improve customer service or operational efficiency. He highlights that airlines and passengers fund these services through fees that have risen 35% since pre-COVID levels, yet delays have worsened, with 2024 marking a record year for disruptions despite a 5% reduction in European flight volumes compared to 2019. The airline’s campaign includes a dedicated website, “Air Traffic Control Ruined Your Flight,” where passengers can access a template to email transport ministers directly. Ryanair emphasizes that the July 2025 strikes, combined with earlier actions, underscore the urgency of reform. The airline has called for measures to protect overflights during national ATC strikes and for the European Commission to hold transport ministers accountable. French Transport Minister Philippe Tabarot has condemned the July strikes as “unacceptable,” particularly given their timing at the start of the holiday season, but the DGAC has acknowledged chronic understaffing issues. Without urgent action, Ryanair warns, passengers face another season of widespread disruptions, higher costs, and environmental impacts from prolonged ground delays, with the summer of 2025 already shaping up to be a challenging period for European air travel.
