The air companies of more than 10 European countries are suffering from air traffic controllers’ strikes. That has started with the labor actions in France, and in a week it overtook the neighboring European countries. According to the news channels, Irish Ryanair was forced to call off 130 flights, German Lufthansa and British Easyjet scrapped 170 and 128 flights correspondingly. Since June 11 till now the total amount of the canceled flights in France has been 1,800. The workers of airlines and airports are protesting against the European Union project to create and introduce the single European airspace. The trade unions' managing boards are afraid that these measures may provoke staff cuts and wage reductions. Moreover, the strike actions alone may jeopardize the socially important public transportation service.
"France doesn't support the new initiative of the European Commission," French Transport Minister Frederic Cuvillier said in a statement. However, the EU affirms that the European airlines lose about €5 billion euro per year due to the air borders, which add aroud 42 km to the average flight. The air companies' representatives are supporting the Single European Sky plan and consider their employees' protests as baseless. For example, in the opinion of Head of Communications at Ryanair Robin Kiely, the air traffic controllers are overpaid, so the trade unions use strikes not as a way to express their disapproval, but as a tool to get higher allowances.