Tom Earnshaw
Schools have almost broken up for summer and with that, huge added pressure to the United Kingdom's airports as millions more fly abroad for their holidays. But as the busiest period for airports approaches, Ryanair has issued a stark warning to Brits flying overseas during this period.
Dublin-based Ryanair, which is hands down the largest airline in all of Europe, likes to see itself as the king of budget travel.
Flying millions of us every single year to our destinations of choice for pretty reasonable fees, there is no question that it has played a significant role when it comes to democratising international travel.
It's also known for having no-nonsense approach to communicating with the public, whether that is through its social media admins or the big bosses themselves.
That's no different when it comes to warning us about the state of things once kids break up for the school holidays and six weeks of extra busy travel hits every airport across the UK.
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Eddie Wilson is chief executive of the main airline operation, Ryanair DAC, and has spoken out about the situation approaching us all fast.
"It is really, really difficult at the moment," Wilson said.
The problem? Relationships with air-traffic control (ATC), with Ryanair saying it is causing unprecedented delays to its flights.
Speaking to The Independent, Wilson said ATC was at fault for 'below five percent' of all delayed flights in Europe (excluding strikes by controllers).
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But he warned: "Post-Covid, that’s got worse. In the first couple of weeks of the summer season, April and May went reasonably well. It was less than 10 percent, so we were able to all get by.
“Over the last 10 days something happened in terms of how they organise it or their staffing.
"We, like other airlines, were hitting 30 percent of [total delays] down to air-traffic control.
"You have localised weather issues at the start of the day, down to freezing fog or wind – issues like that. But there has been a meltdown in European air traffic control over the last two weeks."
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In June, Ryanair was forced to cancel 100 flights in a day due to strikes with the company calling for 'urgent action' to protect those travelling.
This week, the situation is no different. More than 100 of its so-called 'first wave' departures were delayed on Monday (15 June); and the number was 125 the day before. Grim reading for those flying.
It's a situation similar to trains; the pressure is on those earlier in the day to get away on time so as to stop a trickle down of delays for the rest of the day.
Wilson said: "It's awful for our crews, it's awful for passengers.
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“When you tot up the cost of wasting fuel, diversions, all that goes into it, it just makes such sense to hire more air-traffic controllers. They can organise airspace much better, but they’re not doing it in a coordinated way, and then you’ve got industrial action on top of that.”
EUROCONTROL, which works to achieve safe and seamless air traffic management across Europe, said the summer is 'proving particularly challenging' as a result of increased demand on a network that hasn't grown to cope with it.