Holidays chaos as flights are cancelled
French controllers spark disruption
HOLIDAYMAKERS face a weekend of travel chaos with hundreds having their flights cancelled due to threatened strike action by air traffic control workers in France.
Aer Lingus and Ryanair were forced to cancel a number of journeys this weekend due to more industrial action.
The strike action was called off late last night, too late for Ryanair to reinstate the flights.
It’s understood “significant disruption” was expected with Nice, Marseilles and Lyon the affected airports.
Ryanair expected to cancel up to 100 flights, including their Dublin to Nice return services today and tomorrow.
A spokesman said: “While Ryanair welcomes the cancellation of this French air traffic controllers strike, we regret that it came too late to reinstate the flights that we were requested to cancel on Saturday and Sunday.
“As all affected customers have already been contacted by email and SMS text message and have availed of their refund/ rebooking options and as these cancelled flights had been removed from the system and the crews reallocated to alternative duties, we are regrettably unable to reinstate these cancelled flights.”
The budget airline apologised to customers and called on the EU Commission to act to protect overflights during national air traffic control strikes. Aer Lingus had cancelled four weekend flights on yesterday morning with a warning of the significant risk of more cancellations or delays.
The airline advised passengers to check the status of their flight on their website before going to the airport.
It also offered affected customers the option of changing their trip free-ofcharge to a later date.
But due to its busy summer schedule it warned there is limited availability on many routes.
Aer Lingus added: “In the case of a cancelled flight, affected guests can opt to be accommodated on the next available flight, rebook their flight free of charge or cancel and apply for a refund.”
Yesterday many more fortunate families jetted off from Dublin Airport for their summer getaway.
The Moriarty family from Greystones were flying to Cascais in Portugal.
Dad Des, mum Trish and 10-year-old son Josh, who started his school break yesterday, were looking forward to a nineday family holiday in the sun.
Des said: “We’ve been to the Algarve before, Cascais is near Lisbon, so we’ll try to combine city and sun.”
Dr Sophie Crinion, originally from Canada, husband Edwin and boys Felix, aged five, Theo, three and Rowan, 10 months, all from Dublin, were heading to London for a long weekend.