A French air traffic control strike is expected to affect tens of thousands of passengers on Friday.
Ryanair has cancelled 420 flights, the majority of which were to fly over France, affecting 80,000 passengers.
EasyJet has cancelled 76 flights, British Airways has cancelled 22, and Air France has stated that it will only operate 45% of its short-haul flights.
Separately, during Queen Elizabeth’s state funeral on Monday, 15% of Heathrow Airport’s schedule will be altered.
There will be flight cancellations, including 100 British Airways flights and four Virgin Atlantic flights, to keep the skies over London quiet during the events.
Strikes in France
The SNCTA air traffic control union is on strike in France in a dispute over wages, as inflation soars, and recruitment.
According to Ryanair, all affected passengers have been notified. Normally, the low-cost carrier operates over 3,000 flights per day.
Ryanair operations director Neal McMahon called it “inexplicable” that thousands of European citizens and visitors “will have their travel plans unfairly disrupted.”
“It’s inexcusable that passengers who aren’t even flying to or from France are inconvenienced,” he said.
He claimed that French laws protect domestic flights but not those flying over the country.
“It is past time for the European Union to step in and protect overflights so that European passengers are not held hostage by a tiny French air traffic control union,” he said.
EasyJet, the budget airline, said it had cancelled flights at the request of French authorities.
“While this is beyond our control,” EasyJet said, “we would like to apologise to our customers for any inconvenience they may experience.”
British Airways stated that in addition to the 22 cancelled flights to and from Heathrow, there might be some additional delays on Friday.
Air France operates only 45% of its short and medium-haul flights and 90% of its long-haul flights. It also warned that delays and last-minute cancellations could occur.
According to the French civil aviation authority DGAC, flight cancellations affect the entire country. It also stated that it is currently working with the European aviation regulator Eurocontrol to assist airlines in avoiding the country’s airspace.
Strikes in the aviation industry caused significant disruption to Europe’s summer traffic, including ground and cabin crew seeking pay increases to cope with rising living costs amid high inflation.
Several strikes by firefighters and airport personnel at Paris’s Charles De Gaulle airport caused cancellations and delays in July.
Heathrow airport disruption
Separately, Heathrow Airport announced that the flight schedule for Monday would be altered due to the Queen’s funeral.
Heathrow has announced that all flights will be delayed for 15 minutes before and after the two-minute silence at the end of the funeral on Monday.
Following that, there will be no arrivals between 13:45 and 14:20 for the hearse procession and no departures between 15:03 and 16:45 for the ceremonial procession to Windsor Castle via the Long Walk.
Departures will be reduced between 16:45 and 21:00 to accommodate the committal service at St George’s Chapel.
Flights will also be rerouted around Windsor Castle “to minimise noise during the private family service and interment,” according to the announcement.
According to the Civil Aviation Authority, air passengers whose flights are cancelled or significantly delayed on Monday as a result of Heathrow’s changes will not be legally entitled to financial compensation because these are likely to be considered extraordinary circumstances.
However, airlines are offering refunds or rebookings to customers.
