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Ryanair calls for EU to remove ‘Right to Strike’ for eessential ATC services

Direct News Source

18-Oct-2010 Ryanair, Europe’s favourite airline, today (18th Oct) once again called for the EU Commission to remove the ‘right to strike’ from essential services such as ATC after it was forced to cancel another 200 flights ahead of yet more French ATC strikes which will close French airspace tomorrow (19th Oct).

So far in 2010, Ryanair has been forced to cancel 1,850 flights and delay over 12,000 other flights, disrupting over 2.5m passengers, as a direct result of Belgian, French and Spanish ATC strikes and work to rules.

Ryanair called on the EU Commission to reform ATC services as follows:

1. Remove the "right to strike" for essential services such as ATCs.

2. Sack any ATC staff who participate in illegal strikes (as Ronald Reagan sacked and replaced striking ATC staff in the US in the 1980's).

3. Deregulate Europe's national ATC services to allow non striking ATC's to keep the skies over Belgium, France and Spain open, while their overpaid, underworked ATCs go on strike again and again.

4. Reform the EU261 passenger rights legislation to relieve airlines of 'right to care' obligations in such force majeure cases which are clearly outside of airlines' control.

Ryanair's Michael O'Leary said:

"As passengers and airlines face yet more travel disruption we are once again calling on the EU to remove the 'right to strike' for ATC as it is for other essential services like it is for the police and fire services. If these people don't want to work, then replace them with military and other controllers who do wish to work. .

Striking ATC controllers don't care about consumers, they don't care about passengers and they repeatedly strike because they know they can shut down Europe's skies and hold EU Governments and passengers to ransom.

The EU Commission must act now to end this ATC chaos."