Ryanair boss warns of flight cancellations over air traffic control crisis

Fears are growing that the peak summer getaway for British passengers could be blighted by more delayed or cancelled flights than ever, due to a shortage of air-traffic controllers.

Air-traffic control (ATC) is causing unprecedented flight delays, Ryanair has claimed. Eddie Wilson, chief executive of the main airline operation, Ryanair DAC, told The Independent:“It is really, really difficult at the moment with ATC.”

Before the pandemic, air-traffic control was responsible for “below 5 per cent” of total flight delays across Europe, he said – though that does not include strikes by controllers, predominantly in France.

“Post-Covid, that’s got worse. In the first couple of weeks of the summer season, April and May went reasonably well. It was less than 10 per cent, so we were able to all get by.

“Over the last 10 days something happened in terms of how they organise it or their staffing. We, like other airlines, were hitting 30 per cent of [total delays] down to air-traffic control.

“You have localised weather issues at the start of the day, down to freezing fog or wind – issues like that. But there has been a meltdown in European air traffic control over the last two weeks.”

As of Monday morning at the start of the working week, Europe’s biggest budget airline reported more than 100 of its “first wave” of departures were delayed due to air-traffic control (ATC) slot restrictions.

On Sunday, the impact had been even worse, with 125 out of 580 first-wave aircraft waiting for slots – representing 22 per cent of the total.

All budget airlines work hard to get their first wave away on time, because if they leave late delays inevitably build up later during the day.

“It’s awful for our crews, it’s awful for passengers,” said Mr Wilson.

“When you tot up the cost of wasting fuel, diversions, all that goes into it, it just makes such sense to hire more air-traffic controllers.

“They can organise airspace much better, but they’re not doing it in a coordinated way, and then you’ve got industrial action on top of that.”

In 2023, 50,000 hours of flight delays were blamed on striking French air-traffic controllers.

Ryanair made no cancellations on Sunday, but its rival easyJet grounded 22 flights to, from and within the UK – 1.2 per cent of the total of more than 1,800 flights.

A spokesperson for easyJet said: “A small number of flights yesterday were unfortunately disrupted due to the knock-on impact of air traffic control delays across Europe. We are sorry for the inconvenience caused and have provided customers with a refund or a transfer to an alternative flight as well as hotel accommodation and meals.”

Air-traffic control delays across Europe are up on last year – with waits lengthening, the airlines say.

A spokesperson for Eurocontrol said: “Summer 2024 is proving particularly challenging due to strong traffic growth and network saturation combined with adverse weather.

“Large parts of the European air traffic network are experiencing between 10 to 20 per cent more traffic than 2019 – which was the highest year ever in terms of air traffic in Europe.”

Weather delays increased in June by 54 per cent, according to Eurocontrol.

“The pattern in June has continued into July, with very significant weather delay – typically convective weather – and also capacity/staffing issues. In part, these issues flow from the situation in Ukraine,” the Eurocontrol spokesperson said.

“For example, traffic in Budapest ACC [Area Control Centre] so far this year has been over 20 per cent higher than in 2019 and this area has also been heavily impacted by weather this summer.”

UK air-traffic control services are provided by Nats. The organisation was heavily criticised for the failure of its main and standby computer systems over the August bank holiday in 2023. But Nats’ most recent report says it contributed only 1.4 of overall European delay in June, even though it handled 24 per cent of European traffic.

Under European air passengers’ rights rules, travellers whose flights are heavily delayed or cancelled – for any reason – are entitled to meals and, if necessary, accommodation. If a flight is cancelled, the airline must make arrangements for an alternative departure as soon as possible.

Meanwhile Ryanair, easyJet and all the other European airlines are building up to the busiest holiday getaway weekend of the year, starting on Friday 19 July.

For more travel news and advice listen to Simon Calder’s podcast.