THERE’S bad news for Brits heading abroad this summer as Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary has predicted flight cancellations and delays.
Due to strikes and ongoing staffing issues there are particular months which could face the most disruption.
In an interview with The Independent, Michael O’Leary has predicted this summer will be a “mess” when it comes to flights due to possible air traffic control strikes.
Mr O’Leary said: “The French will start striking around May or June and then air traffic controllers will start not showing up to work on Saturdays and Sundays during the summer schedule.
“And we’ll end up with these mythical ATC capacity restrictions, they’re not capacity restriction, they’re ATC staff shortages.”
He continued to say that he believes the European Union should be “fining” air traffic control providers if “they’re not fully staffed for the wave of morning flights”.
Mr O’Leary added that this would be useful for getting flights away on time on weekend during the summer.
He said that “if you get the first wave away, the rest of the day will operate pretty much on time”.
French air traffic control went on strike last year from July 3-4, 2025 which caused widespread delays.
According to Skycop.com, the summer strike resulted in over a thousand flights cancelled, over three thousand flights delayed – and it affected more than 1 million passengers.
Just a few weeks ago on January 9, 2026, there was another nationwide strike by French air traffic controllers which led to the cancellation of 933 flights.
The striking of air traffic control staff doesn’t just affect travellers heading directly in or out of France.
The location of France means that any air traffic strike will affect lots of other routes.
According to Eurocontrol, more than 60 per cent of flights in Western Europe either take off, land in, or pass over France.
Without an adequate number of staff, extensive sections of airspace are made unavailable to planes.
Last year, Ryanair axed 25 routes to France during the winter months, including those to Bergerac, Brive, and Strasbourg.
There could be more cuts on the horizon too as airline’s chief commercial officer, Jason McGuinness said: “Ryanair will leave French regional airports in the summer of 2026.”
No official details have been released yet about which additional regional airports will be impacted.
For more on Ryanair flights, it’s set to restart flights to one European city despite scrapping them just months ago.
And this European airport is set to welcome Ryanair flights this summer – despite axing routes from the UK.