Ryanair passengers across Europe face travel disruption today as 250 flights are cancelled.
The airline cancelled the flights in advance after union strike action was confirmed by several countries.
These latest strikes come after a summer of disruption due to strike action for the airline.
Unions want staff to be given contracts in the countries where they live, rather than under Irish law as they are currently.
FULL LIST OF AFFECTED COUNTRIES
- Netherlands
If you have flights to or from these countries, you may find your flight has been cancelled – up to 30,000 passengers are thought to be affected.
Ryanair have said they have been in touch with all affected passengers in advance to let them know.
In a tweet yesterday, they wrote: “We have pre-cancelled some more flights (under 100) tomorrow (Fri 28) due to a short notice strike, called by the VC union in Germany.
“All affected customers have received emails/text messages this morning advising them of these flight cancellations and their options.”
It is unclear if strike action will continue into the rest of 2018 – Ryanair seem keen to resolve the issue with the unions, but as yet no resolution has been agreed by both sides.
Chief executive Michael O’Leary said the company had written to the unions with an offer to move all staff to local contracts, making strike action “unnecessary”.
But the Dutch pilots union said the offer was only made verbally, and Ryanair had refused to put the offer in writing.
In a statement on their website, Ryanair said: “Ryanair today (25 Sept) advised customers that it has pre-cancelled 190 (8eight per cent) of its 2,400 scheduled flights on Fri 28th due to a unnecessary strike by a tiny minority of cabin crew in Spain, Belgium, Holland, Portugal, Italy and Germany.
“All affected customers have received emails and text SMS messages this morning advising them of their flight cancellation three days in advance.
“Ryanair sincerely regrets these unnecessary customer disruptions, which have been called by unions at the behest of competitor airline employees.
“In Spain, a Norwegian cabin crew member in Alicante is driving the strike, in Portugal a TAP cabin crew is calling for strikes without the support of our Portuguese cabin crew, and in Italy where Ryanair yesterday signed a CLA agreement with the three main cabin crew unions, this threatened strike has been called by a tiny union which has no recognition or support among our Italian cabin crew.
“Ryanair has made significant progress in recent weeks with our union negotiations, which include pilot and/or cabin crew agreements in Ireland, UK, Italy and Germany.
“In the last two weeks, Ryanair has written to the pilot unions in Belgium, Holland, Spain, Portugal and Germany inviting them to negotiate similar agreements to that reached with FORSA in Ireland for both pilots and cabin crew.
“Ryanair has also agreed to move to local contracts, local law and local taxation as quickly as possible in 2019, subject to only reaching CLA agreements with national unions in each country.
“We are therefore disappointed that these unions led by Eurowings pilots in Germany, KLM pilots in Holland, and Aer Lingus pilots in Ireland continue to interfere, and campaign for strikes, to disrupt Ryanair’s customers and damage Ryanair’s business for the benefit of their high fare airline employers.
“Ryanair apologises to the 30,000 (out of 450,000) customers who are likely to be affected by these unjustified disruptions on Fri 28th. These strikes are unnecessary when Ryanair has already agreed to the union demands for local contracts and local T&C’s.
“As these strikes are being promoted and driven by competitor employees, they are regrettably beyond Ryanair’s control.
“All Ryanair customers flying on Fri 28th who have not yet received an email or text SMS notice today can expect that their flight will operate as scheduled.”
