We have already explained on other occasions how the strike of French air traffic control operators impacts global European air traffic. Given the vastness of the French FIRs and the fact that when this happens, overflights are not authorized except for them to change route and fly over portions of the airspace of other neighboring countries compatibly in their regularity with the remaining available slot capacity.
Thanks to Eurocontrol data we can say that yesterday compared to April 18th, i.e. 7 days earlier:
Ryanair operated 3347 flights on 18 April and on the 25th there were 3023.
easyJet operated 1654 flights on 18 April and on the 25th there were 1434.
Lufthansa Group from 1270 on 18 April to 1210 on 25 April
Air France Group operated 1043 flights on 18 April and 475 on 25 April.
British Airways Group from 872 flights on 18 April to 826 on 25 April.
Vueling operated 641 flights on 18 April and on the 25th there were 563.
Swiss Group from 473 on 18 April to 462 on 25 April
Norwegian from 466 flights on April 18 to 419 on April 25.
Iberia Group from 414 on April 18 to 388 on April 25.
ITA Airways from 393 on 18 April to 375 on 25 April.
Air Nostrum from 248 on 18 April to 238 on 25 April.
Brussels Airlines were 178 on 18 April and 163 on 25 April.
Data from Eurocontrol statistics.
Just an example from yesterday for a Ryanair flight from Barcelona to Turin which, to be guaranteed, instead of the route that flies over Spain-France-Italy had to fly in the Spanish space then enter that of Algeria, then Italy. All for a flight that exceptionally lasted two hours and 18 minutes versus the classic one hour and thirteen minutes.
In the two images, on the left the one from April 25th and on the right the 23rd April.
In total it is 65 minutes more flight time. As a result of all these problems of the day, the plane arrived in Turin at 01:21 on 26 April instead of 22:20 on 25 April, 3 hours and 1 minute late.
But the scenario didn’t change on his return, he had to take the same route to return to his base in Barcelona in two hours and sixteen minutes versus the usual one hour and five minutes.
During the day the same B737-8200 aircraft flew four times over French airspace on its routes from Barcelona to Naples first and return and then Prague and subsequent return. In all of them it flew the direct route, but was delayed due to the limited slots granted to the aircraft which caused delays to accumulate. So the recipe is “I’ll make you fly the same route, but I’ll make you be late”. Or “I’ll make you avoid my airspace”. In short, the result is that the plane in its eight routes, instead of finishing them at 00:20, ended the day at 4:34 with 4 hours and 14 minutes of delay and certainly an extra crew to use and at least two hours of flight and extra change to be added to the carrier’s operating results. Thousands and thousands of € more flown away.
