The CEO of the airline claims it will be a mess in the summer

Now, in the interview given by the CEO to “The Independent”, he once again fires in all directions and explains why in his opinion there will be quite a few flight cancellations and “mess” in the coming year: “The French will start going on strike around May or June and then the air traffic controllers will start not coming to work on Saturdays and Sundays, during the summer schedule. This will lead to limitations in air capacity and a shortage of air traffic control personnel.”

The CEO bases his words on the fact that the French air traffic control went on strike last year between July 3 and 4, 2025, which caused extensive delays, not only in the country. According to Skycop.com, this summer strike resulted in the cancellation of over a thousand flights, delays of over three thousand flights – and it affected more than a million passengers on the continent.

O’Leary stated that he believes the European Union should fine air traffic control organizations if “they don’t fully staff the morning wave of flights.”

According to Eurocontrol, more than 60 percent of flights in Western Europe take off, land in or pass over France. Without a sufficient number of controllers, large parts of the airspace are unavailable to aircraft. Just a few weeks ago, on January 9, 2026, there was another nationwide strike by French air traffic controllers that led to the cancellation of 933 flights.

The company’s anger at France led the airline’s chief commercial officer, Jason McGuinness, to say that “Ryanair will leave regional airports in France in the summer of 2026.” No official details have yet been released regarding this statement, but since the airline is unpredictable, it may very well happen in the end.