Air traffic control delays will hit more passengers this summer, Ryanair warned on Friday as it named the French authorities as the biggest cause of hold-ups to its flights.
The Irish airline and other carriers have been campaigning for several years for reform of air traffic management in the EU, which remains under each member state’s control.
Delays will be “worse in summer 2025″ as the European Commission and individual governments have not acted to fix their “shoddy air traffic control servces”, Ryanair predicted.
Mismanagement and short staffing caused a record number of air traffic control-related delays last year, despite there being 5 per cent fewer flights than before Covid-19, the airline said.
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Ryanair named France at the top of its “air traffic control league of delays” for the first five months of this year.
More than 15,600 of its flights there were delayed, hitting 2.81 million of its passengers, according to its figures. Ryanair blamed the country’s transport minister, Philipe Tabarot, as he is the government member responsible for air traffic control.
Spain followed with 11,576 delayed flights, affecting two million passengers, with the Irish carrier naming minister, Oscar Puente, as the politician responsible.
Germany, Portugal and the UK, made up the five worst offenders that the airline named.
Ryanair argued that European transport ministers should not be allowed preside over another summer of air traffic control delays.
Michael O’Leary, its chief executive, pointed out that airlines inform national air traffic control authorities of schedules almost 12 months in advance.
“This is especially important for the first wave of morning flights as any morning delays knock on to flights throughout the rest of the day,” he said.
Tackling staff shortages and protecting overflights during strikes in member states would “eliminate 90 per cent of EU’s air traffic control delays but transport ministers won’t take any action”, he added.
