Flights to and from Cork Airport impacted by French air traffic control strikes

An inbound and outbound flight at Cork Airport have been impacted by French air traffic control strikes today.

Ryanair flight FR9009 from Cork to Bordeaux which had a scheduled departure of 7.25pm this evening has been cancelled in addition to Ryanair flight FR9010 scheduled to arrive at Cork Airport from Bordeaux at 11.30pm.

Passengers have been advised to contact the airline if they have queries.

Michael O'Leary: ''We've been notified by the French Aviation Authorities of the 51st day of striking, on Monday May 1st, and that we must cancel another 220 flights, impacting 40,000 passengers..this is unacceptable'' pic.twitter.com/KmAiY9wCrn

— Ryanair (@Ryanair) April 29, 2023

In a statement on Saturday, Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary criticised the impacts of the ongoing strikes by French air traffic control staff as “completely unacceptable”.

“The French authorities have told us we must cancel another 220 flights, most of them are overflying France,” he said.

“That means another 40,000 passengers on the May bank holiday weekend are going to have their flights cancelled because of French ATC strikes.” 

Mr O’Leary said Ryanair wanted to “apologise sincerely” to passengers whose flights were disrupted, adding where flights were cancelled the airline had emailed customers to notify them.

“It is unfair that flights from the UK to Spain or flights from Italy to Portugal are being cancelled simply because a bunch of French air traffic control units want to go on strike.

“We respect their right to strike, but if they want to strike, cancel the French flights, protect the overflights,” he said.