European Airlines Brace For Further Atc Disruption This Summer

SEVILLE, Spain—“We cannot have summer 2025 looking like summer 2024,” Airlines for Europe (A4E) MD Ourania Georgoutsakou told delegates at Routes Europe in Seville, referring to European air traffic control (ATC) delays.

But Ryanair is bracing for this summer to be worse, not better.

Georgoutsakou said European airlines faced 11 million min. of peak-season delays between June and September 2024, caused by ATC capacity restrictions and weather delays. The situation is further-exacerbated by 20% of Europe’s airspace being closed by the Russia-Ukraine war.

“Airspace is outdated. It’s fragmented,” Georgoutsakou said. “Weather is forecasted, capacity is also known and can be forecasted. Clearly, we need to do something differently.”

A4E is working with Eurocontrol and Europe’s air navigation service providers (ANSPs) to avoid a repeat of the ATC delays seen in 2024. “What is it we can change in our flight planning? What kind of information can I give earlier?” she said. “Can we move people around in the airspace, so we don’t have queues and jams?”

However, Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary is not optimistic of change. “Last year, in 2024 we suffered record ATC delays,” O’Leary said, speaking at the A4E Aviation Summit on March 27. “This year will be worse than it was in 2024.”

He said major European ANSPs have “admitted” that they are understaffed and that the ATC delays will be worse than they were last summer.

O’Leary added that the Single European Sky has “not made one centimeter of progress in 20 years,” despite over €20 billion ($22 billion) in investment and air traffic management fees increasing by 50% over the past five years. “It is unacceptable,” he said. “Forget the Single European Sky. It’s been a complete waste of time.”

Instead, O’Leary would like to see European ANSP providers being mandated to be fully staffed for the first wave of flight departures every day.

Speaking at the A4E conference, Air France-KLM CEO Ben Smith said there are “limited consequences” for ANSPs, meaning change is “not a priority.” He said Air France-KLM is facing 20-25% ATC staff shortages at its hubs. He thinks ANSP providers should have to cover the cost of their delays.

“At least there’d be pressure to try to fix it, but today they just throw it all on the airlines,” Smith said.

O’Leary called on the new European Commission—which took office on Dec. 1, 2024—to include a right of recourse against ANSPs in its upcoming review of the EU airline passenger rights rules.