Ryanair flights to and from Paris Beauvais and Malta cancelled over French ATC strike

Ryanair flights to and from Paris Beauvais airport and Malta have been cancelled over another French air traffic control (ATC) strike.

In total, Ryanair advised that nearly 100 flights to and from Paris Beauvais airport had been cancelled. This includes scheduled flight FR 1505 departing from Malta to Paris at 4:45pm and FR 1506 departing from Paris at 8:15pm.

In addition, Wizz Air Malta – Wizz Air’s Malta-based subsidiary – also had to cancel five flights across Albania, Italy and Romania (three total flights).

Since 2023, there has been a total of 84 days of French ATC strikes, forcing airlines to cancel thousands of EU flights across

A spokesperson for Ryanair stated that “it is inexplicable” that Ursula von der Leyen and the EU Commission “failed to take action” to protect EU passengers’ freedom of movement during the repeated French ATC strikes.

“There is no excuse for EU passengers to bear the burden of national ATC strikes that are completely unrelated to them and its time that Ursula von der Leyen and the EU Commission do something  about it,” the spokesperson added.

Back in April, Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary commented that President von der Leyen “failed for five years to take any action to protect” overflights and the single market for air travel.

An overflight refers to a situation where an aircraft flies over a particular country’s airspace without landing there.

At the time, he said that come June and the European elections (meaning now), he encourages everyone to vote “and demand [their respective] MEP and the European Commission to take action to protect overflights.”

“We can’t have the skies over Europe repeatedly closed because French air traffic controllers are going to strike,” he said.