Birmingham Airport: Departure flights cancelled from UK airport amid French air traffic control strike

Airlines including Ryanair and easyJet have been forced to cancel scores of flights, affecting thousands of passengers, because of two days of strike action by French air traffic controllers. France’s civil aviation agency DGAC instructed airlines to revise their schedules because of the action, which is taking place today.

Flights that are cancelled from Birmingham Airport today include:

• 08:25 easyJet flight to Edinburgh
• 14:30 Air France flight to Paris CDG
• 18:40 Air France flight to Paris CDG
• 18:50 easyJet flight to Paris CDG

Ryanair said that due to the French air traffic control strike it had cancelled more than 400 flights, disrupting more than 70,000 passengers, while easyJet has been reported to have cancelled 274 flights. The carrier confirmed that 38 UK flights will be impacted today.

Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary said: “Once again European families are held to ransom by French air traffic controllers going on strike. It is not acceptable that overflights over French airspace en route to their destination are being cancelled/delayed as a result of yet another French ATC strike.”

An easyJet spokesperson said: “On behalf of our passengers, we are extremely unhappy with the strike action, particularly given the current performance of French ATC which has been the leading cause of airspace delays in Europe this summer. Long-term solutions must be found for our customers and crew who suffer repeated disruption.”

The spokesperson added that the airline had proactively cancelled some flights in advance and contacted customers to invite them to transfer to another flight for free or to accept a refund. It advised all customers travelling on July 4 to check their flight status on the easyJet Flight Tracker service.