Ryanair has sent an alert to customers on Wednesday after it was forced to cancel thousands of flights.
The no-frills airline issued the message at around 11.30am, after some 4,000 flights have been cancelled so far in 2023. Ryanair said the cancelled flights, which were mainly due to fly over France, could not go ahead as planned due to French Air Traffic Control strikes.
It added: "It is unacceptable that France uses Min Service Legislation to protect French flights during these repeated ATC strikes, while overflights, none of which are operating to/from France, suffer all these cancellations.
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"This is unfair. The EU must act now to protect overflights and the EU Single Market. Ryanair has repeatedly called on the EU Commission and Ursula von der Leyen to take action to protect EU passengers and overflights during repeated French ATC strikes.
"Ryanair calls on all passengers to sign our petition."
A series of walkouts have taken place this year so far, with the most recent a 34-hour strike that ended on Friday, June 30. Ahead of the industrial action, Ryanair said: "Due to another French Air Traffic Control strike, we have regrettably been forced to cancel approximately 130 flights to and from France on Thursday June 29."
Passengers affected, Ryanair said, were "notified via email and SMS with all the information you need to change your flight or request a refund."
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