The strike by French air traffic controllers sends shockwaves across Europe, leaving Ryanair scrambling to adapt to unprecedented challenges.
At a Glance
- A two-day strike by French air traffic controllers is causing widespread travel chaos across Europe at the start of the peak summer holiday season.
- Ryanair has canceled over 170 flights, affecting more than 30,000 passengers, while EasyJet has canceled 274 flights.
- The strike impacts not only flights to and from France but also all “overflights” that must cross French airspace.
- Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary has blasted the strike, accusing the French union of holding European families “to ransom” and demanding EU action.
Travel Chaos Grips Europe
A two-day strike by French air traffic controllers (ATCs) has plunged Europe into travel chaos, forcing airlines to cancel hundreds of flights and disrupting the plans of tens of thousands of passengers. The industrial action, which began on Thursday, July 3, 2025, is timed to cause maximum disruption at the very beginning of the busy summer holiday season.
Ryanair cancels flights for 30,000 passengers due to French strike https://t.co/cYm7N4siMv
— BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews) July 3, 2025
Ryanair, Europe’s largest airline, has been forced to cancel over 170 flights, affecting more than 30,000 passengers. Rival budget carrier EasyJet has canceled 274 flights. The cancellations came after France’s civil aviation authority, DGAC, asked airlines to slash their schedules at major airports like Paris and Nice by up to 40%.
The “Overflight” Problem
The primary source of the widespread disruption is the impact on “overflights.” Because of France’s central location, thousands of flights that are not departing from or landing in France must still pass through its airspace to reach their destinations—for example, a flight from the UK to Spain or from Ireland to Italy.
During a national strike, these overflights are also canceled or severely delayed, a situation that airlines and passenger groups have labeled as “intolerable.”
O’Leary: French ATCs Holding Families “to Ransom”
Ryanair’s outspoken CEO, Michael O’Leary, has slammed the French union for its repeated disruptions. “Once again, European families are held to ransom by French air traffic controllers going on strike,” O’Leary said in a statement reported by Sky News. “It is not acceptable that overflights over French airspace en route to their destination are being cancelled/delayed as a result of yet another French ATC strike.”
He is calling on European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to take “urgent action” to reform E.U. air traffic control services. His primary demand, detailed in The Irish Times, is for the E.U. to implement rules that legally protect overflights during national strikes, a move he claims would eliminate 90% of these disruptions. The French ATC unions are striking over long-standing grievances related to staffing shortages and working conditions.
