The boss of the Low-Cost company Michael O’Leary also denounced the strike of French air controllers who “take European families hostage”.
“Congratulations to France!”. It is with a good dose of irony that Ryanair unveiled this European classification of countries on Thursday that accuse the most delays in the air. A classification called “League of delays” by the Company and which crowns France, ahead of Spain and Germany. All accompanied, on the Instagram account of Ryanair, by a photo generated by the AI ​​of three sad men representing the three “winners”.
Ryanair assures that 26,008 of its flights were late in France in 2025 and that 4.7 million passengers were assigned. The company also has 16,667 delays in Spain (three million passengers assigned) and 7,526 in Germany (1.3 million passengers).
Through its ranking, Ryanair mainly points out the management of air traffic control in Europe, which it has been criticizing for many years. The company also claims a reform of the sector on the level of the European Union.
European families “taken hostage” by the strike of French controllers
The publication of this classification comes while French air controllers are on strike. Because of this movement, Ryanair announced that he had to cancel 170 flights this Thursday, deploring that travelers are taken “hostage”. The Irish “low cost” also reiterated its appeal to the European Commission to “act urgently to reform the EU air traffic control services” in order to prevent national strikes from causing cascade effects on the entire European traffic.
“In addition to the flights to destination or from France, this strike will also affect all overflies from French airspace. This is due to the persistent inability of France to protect overflights during the national strikes of air traffic control services,” Ryanair noted in a statement.
“Although only French air controllers are on strike, most of the assigned passengers do not even travel to or from France, but simply fly over French airspace on their way to their destination (for example: United Kingdom, Greece, Spain, Ireland, etc.)”, demonstrated the carrier.
For this one, “European airspace cannot be closed repeatedly simply because French air controllers strike for their personal comfort”.
“Once again, European families are taken hostage by the strikes of French air controllers,” denounced the boss of Ryanair, Michael O’Leary, quoted in the text. The strike, scheduled for Thursday and Friday, forced the company “to cancel 170 flights, disturbing more than 30,000 passengers”, depending on the company.
