Ryanair. Photo: Shutterstock Strike in Serbia Affects Flights. Tens of thousands of passengers across Europe discovered in recent days that their flights were delayed or canceled, even without flying to Belgrade. The reason: a strike by air traffic controllers in Serbia, which also affects overflights.
Ryanair has already identified the main culprit, once again attacking the European Union and accusing the President of the Commission of abandoning passengers.
During the first two days of the air traffic controllers' strike in Belgrade (August 20-21), the air traffic jams disrupted 99 flights, affecting 17,800 passengers across Europe. The strike, declared for 40 days, according to Ryanair, not only impacts flights to and from Serbia but also thousands of flights crossing the country's airspace.
The main issue is that Serbia is not obliged to provide minimum service to overflights during strikes, unlike countries like Italy, Spain, and Greece, so even passengers with no direct connection to Belgrade find themselves waiting at airports or needing to reroute.
"The Union Is Silent, and Passengers Pay"
Ryanair was not sparing in criticism: “It is unacceptable that European passengers, who are not even flying to Serbia, suffer delays and cancellations just because its airspace is blocked. It is unfair, illogical, and the EU continues to remain silent while passengers pay the price,” said Jade Kirkwin, the company's communications manager.
Ryanair recalls that this is not the first time it has criticized Brussels harshly. The company has previously warned that the union does not protect passengers from air traffic controller strikes in various countries, and this time it again places the Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen, at the focus.
Ryanair recently made headlines in Europe from another angle, after equipment failure at the Athens Control Center (August 20) led to the delay of 12 of its aircraft and affected more than 2,000 passengers. According to Ryanair, this was just the tip of the iceberg: from January 1 to August 20, over 5,000 flights were delayed and around 900,000 passengers were affected due to “poor management and a lack of air traffic control staff in Greece and Europe as a whole.”
In this case as well, the company directly pointed a finger at the EU Commission and its head, warning that if immediate reform is not implemented, European passengers will continue to suffer frequent flight disruptions.
Call for Urgent Reform
According to Ryanair, the solution is on the table: uniform legislation in the Union to ensure that overflights are not affected by national strikes. “It’s time for the Commission to stop ignoring and start protecting European passengers,” the company concluded.