European Airline Flight Cancellations Increase By 65%

BY LUKE BODELL

Europe was the worst-affected global region for cancelations by some distance.

European flight cancelations shot up in March as airlines faced a sharp rise in striking action from aviation workers. Over 14,000 flights were canceled during the month, with almost every global region suffering a rise in cancelations.

European aviation strike fallout

According to Cirium data, Europe saw 14,405 flights scrapped in March, a 65% increase on February's total of 8,713. Europe was by far the largest regional jump in a month that saw global cancelations rise to over 72,900, a 20% increase on the 60,780 in February.

As quoted by Irish Times, Cirium CEO Jeremy Bowen attributed the region's struggles to "a number of last-minute air traffic control and airport strikes," particularly the air traffic control (ATC) strikes in France that have impacted over 50 days in 2023 alone, a ten-fold rise on all of 2022. German aviation has also suffered its fair share of industrial action this year, including huge transport network strikes towards the end of March.

Ryanair has said the French ATC strikes alone have caused it to cancel over 3,700 flights, impacting around 660,000 passengers, while easyJet CEO Johan Lundgren believes up to 10 million passengers overall have been affected by the strikes so far.

The domestic situation has become a wider headache for European airspace, as a significant number of flights need to pass over French territory on their optimal routings. Data from eurocontrol reveals 15% of flights to/from Spain were impacted between March 1st and April 9th, while Germany, Italy and the UK experienced disruption to 6-8% of flights, due to the French airspace situation.

Cancelations up everywhere except North America

Cirium's report revealed that four of five major geographic regions - Middle East & Africa, Asia-Pacific, Latin America and Europe - experienced a rise in cancelations in March, with North America bucking the trend after recording a 16% reduction.


A worrying trend

French air traffic control recently announced a strike on the upcoming Labour Day public holiday on May 1st. Authorities have warned of disruption from Sunday, April 30th to the morning of Tuesday, May 2nd, and are requesting around 33% of flights be cut on May 1st.

It won't just be flights originating from or destined for France impacted, with delays and possible cancelations expected for flights passing over the country. According to Euronews, French airspace sees around 3,700 commercial overflights and around 3,300 takeoffs and landings on a regular day.

With last-minute strikes continuing to impact German airports, European travelers will keep an eye on a concerning rise in cancelations as the summer travel rush approaches.