Ryanair has said sorry to its customers after a number of delays affected flights all over Europe, with the airline blaming the chaos on air traffic control staff shortages. It said the disruption was hitting every airline operating in Europe.
In a message on its website under Latest Travel Updates, the airline said that flights were affected today (November 8) and despite no industrial action from French air traffic control (ATC) this summer, ATC services across Europe are still not at the level they should be.
It said: “Ryanair, Europe’s No.1 airline, on Fri 08 Nov apologised to its passengers for the excessive flight delays caused by European ATC staff shortages today Fri 08 Nov which is 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 5% behind 2019 levels) with repeated ‘staff shortages’.”
Now, Ryanair is rallying its passengers to visit its campaign website, explaining: “On Fri 08, Ryanair’s first wave departures were again 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. We encourage passengers to visit atcruinedourholiday.com and demand that the EU Commission take urgent action to improve Europe’s ATC system.”
The apology comes as Ryanair’s CEO has criticised the Government’s decision to increase Air Passenger Duty on short-haul flights, announcing the UK’s leading airline would cut 10 per cent of its UK seats next year. It means that air passenger duty will increase by up to £2 for an economy class short-haul flight, as announced by Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ in the recent budget.
However the budget airline says that this move will only make holidays more costly and turn people away with Ryanair CEO, Michael O’Leary, stating the tax hike will damage growth, tourism, and air travel to and from the UK.
He said: “This short-sighted tax grab will make air travel much more expensive for ordinary UK families going on holidays abroad and will make the UK a less competitive destination compared to Ireland, Sweden, Hungary and Italy where these governments are abolishing travel taxes to stimulate traffic, tourism, and jobs growth in their economies. Reeves has damaged the UK’s growth prospects and made air travel much more expensive for UK families travelling abroad on holidays or to visit friends and family.”