Ryanair flies 16m passengers in April in spite of French air traffic control strikes

Ryanair flew 16 million passengers last month, beating April 2022’s total by 13 per cent, despite the impact of French air traffic control strikes.

The Irish airline said on Monday that it sold 94 per cent of the seats on its aircraft in April, against 91 per cent during the same month last year.

April’s traffic was 13 per cent ahead of the 14.2 million people who flew with Ryanair during the same month in 2022, when the outbreak of the Ukraine war hit sales.

Ryanair operated more than 89,650 flights during the month. The airline noted that “regrettably” French air traffic control strikes forced it to cancel more than 650 flights, affecting 118,000 passengers.

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French air traffic control strikes have so far this year overtaken the total number of stoppages staged by such workers through all of 2022, angering airlines and passengers around Europe.

The strikes hit flights through the country’s air space between other countries, including journeys to many sunspots favoured by Irish people.

Ryanair has called on the EU Commission to tackle the problem by taking control of over-flights through French skies.

The figures published on Wednesday show that Ryanair flew 170.3 million passengers in the 12 months up to the end of April. That was 55 per cent higher than during the previous 12 months, part of which was hit by Covid restrictions.