Ryanair wants EU to ban air traffic control strikes
09.03.11
Ryanair has again urged the European Union to ban air traffic controllers from going on strike by declaring them to be providers of an ‘essential service’. Last year the budget airline was forced to cancel more than 1400 flights and delay more than 12,000 others, disrupting over 2.5 million passengers, as a result of strikes by air traffic controllers in Belgium, France and Spain.
Ryanair chief executive Michael O'Leary said air traffic controllers who strike in Europe should be fired and replaced just as then US president Ronald Reagan did in August 1981 when air traffic controllers went on strike during the height of the summer holidays.
He said: ‘The policy should be the same in Europe as in the United States. Air traffic controllers should be declared an essential service and therefore not be allowed to go on strike. The same way that the police and the army can't go on strike, air traffic controllers should not be allowed to strike and if they do they should be sacked.’
The fresh call comes after Spanish airport workers threatened to call strikes over the next few months today, including during the busy Easter holiday season, to protest Government plans to partially privatise AENA.
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