Easyjet boss says French air traffic control strikes creating ‘unexpected and significant costs’ for airlines

Tens of thousands of passengers were disrupted when French ATC staff walked out on July 3 and 4 in a dispute over working conditions.

Flights to and from French airports, as well as those scheduled to fly over French airspace, were affected.

Ryanair said another strike on Wednesday disrupted the travel plans of 30,000 of its passengers.

Mr Jarvis said: “We are extremely unhappy with the strike action by the French ATC in early July, which as well as presenting unacceptable challenges for customers and crew also created unexpected and significant costs for all airlines.”

French ATC has been the leading cause of delays to easyJet flights since the start of the summer.

Mr Jarvis described the walkout in early July as “very, very disruptive” as it forced it to cancel 660 flights and cost it £15m.

Around 70 per cent of easyJet’s flights either fly to or from a French airport, or over the country’s airspace.

Mr Jarvis said the airline has “very strong measures in place to protect our operations”, and has improved its punctuality record, but “no measures will cope when French airspace effectively closes”.

He added: “What we have to do is demand that the French government steps in and really works with their ANSP (air navigation service provider) because it has been the worst performing air traffic control area in Europe, and they get ahead of it and do some long-term measures.

“More recruitment into the tower for controllers, protecting over-flying, using AI and data that’s available nowadays to improve the life of the controller.

“We’re asking for improved actions, but at easyJet we’ve made a lot of investment into our resilience.”

EasyJet has also taken a £10m hit because of a recent increase in the price of fuel.

The company reported a headline pre-tax profit of £286m between April and June. That is an improvement of £50m compared with a year earlier.

EasyJet said this was driven by strong demand and the later timing of Easter this year.

Its package holiday arm easyJet holidays recorded pre-tax profits of £86m for the quarter, a £13m improvement year-on-year.

EasyJet holidays is expected to deliver more than £235m in pre-tax profits for the year to the end of September, and a new “medium term target will be set”, the company said.

Mr Jarvis said: “We performed well in the quarter, increasing profits alongside improving operational performance which has boosted easyJet’s customer satisfaction scores, and we continued to see strong demand from our customers.”