In a statement, Ryanair, one of Ireland’s greatest business success stories, regrets "the continued cancellation of flights over France due to repeated strikes by French air traffic controllers", criticising that French legislation is only being applied "to protect French domestic flights".

For its part, according to the Irish air carrier, European Union (EU) overflights from Germany, Spain, Italy, the United Kingdom and Ireland "are cancelled only because a small French union of French air traffic controllers repeatedly shuts down the skies over Europe".

Last weekend, more than 25% of Ryanair's 9,000 scheduled flights were delayed due to disturbances by French air traffic controllers, while 230 flights (which would carry 41,000 passengers) were cancelled due to capacity restrictions, according to company data.

"These repeated interruptions of flights from the EU are unacceptable".

The position comes a week after Ryanair launched a petition to ask the European Commission to intervene to "protect passengers" during air strikes in France, demanding minimum services and external management of flights.

"Unfortunately, to date, the European Commission, led by Ursula von der Leyen, has not taken any action on these measures to protect EU citizens and overflights", regrets Ryanair.