Yahoo Finance IAG and Ryanair launch legal action against French government for air traffic control strikes
Airlines IAG and Ryanair are launching legal action against the French government over air traffic control strikes, saying it is an issue which has been "forced on airlines and forced on our customers".
The pair are submitting a joint complaint to the European Commission which will argue that the strikes restrict the fundamental rights of European citizens, and say there must be a balance between those rights and the conditional right to strike.
Ryanair chief executive Michael O'Leary said: “These disruptions are unacceptable, and we call on the governments, and the EU Commission to take urgent and decisive action to ensure that air traffic control providers are fully staffed and that overflights are not affected when national strikes take place, as they repeatedly do in France."
The pair urged the Commission to speed up progress on implementing a Single European Sky programme, which was first launched in 2000.
Such a programme would mean different jurisdictions of airspace would only apply when planes were flying lower to the ground, and above a certain height would be classed as European airspace. This would mean strikes in a certain country would have less of an impact on planes which weren't landing or taking off from that country.
"2018 will be by far the worst year on record for ATC strikes," Mr O'Leary warned, ahead of further planned strikes this weekend.
In the year-to-date, almost 5,000 flights being operated by member airlines of the Airlines for Europe trade group have been cancelled due to strikes, affecting around 784,000 passengers across Europe. Ryanair was forced to cancel more than 1,000 flights in May due to ATC staff shortages and strikes, compared to just 43 in May last year.
Mr O'Leary said upwards of two million passengers this year are likely to have their flight cancelled due to air traffic control strikes.
Willie Walsh, the chief executive of British Airways owner IAG, said the pair had decided to pursue the complaint following talks in the last couple of weeks after they discovered a "strong legal precedent".
"We want our people to be able to operate in an environment that's efficient," he said.
IAG and Ryanair revealed they were working together on the action as rumours suggested that both were considering engaging in a bidding war for Norwegian Air, the airline which Lufthansa and IAG have expressed interest in over recent months.
However, Mr O'Leary said Ryanair "will not be making an offer for Norwegian, not today, not tomorrow, not ever".
"I think Bjorn [Kjos, Norwegian chief executive] is a great guy, but the airline is a dog. It's not making any money and it's never going to make any money in the way it is presently run and operated.
"I think it's inevitable that it will either go bust or be taken over by somebody, and it's part of a consolidation that is inevitable going across Europe."
Mr Walsh, meanwhile, said IAG, which has already had two proposals rejected, would also not be participating in a bidding war.
"I've made that very clear, in relation to Norwegian, you've heard me say that it's run by an individual that I admire – I admire the ambition and bravery.
"The company is clearly in a situation where its financial performance is very poor. We have had discussions with the company in relation to a potential bid and that's not gone anywhere."
"If Lufthansa wishes to acquire Norwegian and is prepared to pay a price in excess of what we would value the company, they're welcome to. I'm not sure they would," he said.
