A number of flights to and from Ireland have been cancelled today as a result of strike action by air traffic controllers in France.
Ryanair, Aer Lingus and Air France flights to and from Dublin and Cork have been affected by the strike, but all passengers are expected to be accommodated on other flights either today or tomorrow when the strike action ends.
Eight Ryanair flights have been affected on its Dublin/Biarritz, Dublin/Carcasonne and Dublin/Marseille routes as well as its Cork/Carcasonne route affecting around 900 passengers.
Stephen McNamara of Ryanair said although many people will be placed on the next available flight, passengers may also choose to avail of a full refund.
Just over 600 Aer Lingus passengers have had their flights cancelled today on the airline’s Dublin/Paris and Dublin/Nice routes.
Affected passengers on the EI524 flight from Dublin to Paris and the return EI525 flight from Paris are to be put on a larger aircraft that Aer Lingus has put on for this evening.
Meanwhile passengers travelling on the Dublin/Nice route, with flight numbers EI544 and EI545 are to be accommodated on a larger aircraft tomorrow. A spokeswoman said that no further cancellations were anticipated.
Air France, which operates flights from Dublin to Paris Charles de Gaulle say that 80 per cent of medium haul flights are operating. However, its AF5011 flight from Dublin to Paris and this afternoon’s AF5000 flight from Paris to Dublin have been cancelled.
A spokesman for Air France said passengers had been contacted by phone, SMS and email and would be accommodated on later flights, adding that the airline “deeply regretted” any inconvenience caused but stressed that this was a third party strike.
The strike, which began last night, is affecting one out of five of flights at Charles de Gaulle, France’s main airport and is expected to last until around 4am Irish time tomorrow.
Air traffic controllers fear job losses arising from the EU’s Single European Sky concept meant to ensure greater efficiency and deal with projected traffic increases.
Under the plan, the 27 separate air traffic systems now operating in the European Union would be reduced to nine hubs.
Ryanair have called on the French government to ensure that French airports remain open during strikes by calling on the military to provide air traffic control services.
“The government must keep France’s vital airports and air traffic control services open even during periods of industrial disruption,” Mr McNamara said.
“Today’s French Air Traffic Control strike and the industrial action taken by Spanish ATC workers in recent weeks highlights the urgent need for a standardised Europe-wide system of air traffic control to ensure that striking air traffic controllers in one country could not hold the travelling public to ransom.
"Under a standardised Europe-wide ATC strikes would be covered by controllers in other countries so that passengers are not disrupted by strike action of very well paid ATC workers.”
The idea for single airspace authority for the European Union has been in discussion since 1960.
A volcanic ash cloud which forced the closure of a major part of European airspace in April, highlighted the disjointed and unco-ordinated response.
France is one of six European states - including Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Switzerland - which signed a deal two years ago to create a single central European airspace bloc, as part of broader plans to gradually unify air traffic control in the whole of Europe.
Today'sstrike, called by several controllers' unions, forced the cancellation of about 20 per cent of flights at Paris's Charles de Gaulle airport, the nation's biggest.
The second-busiest airport, Paris Orly, was worse hit with about 50 per cent of cancellations, civil aviation authorities said. Some 22 per cent of flights were cancelled at Marseille Provence airport, 14 per cent at Lyon St-Exupery and 6 percent at Nice Cote d'Azur.
French government spokesman Luc Chatel said the strike was “unacceptable” and would place many travellers going or returning from holidays, in a hostage situation.