Blueprint
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549
FORM 6-K
Report of Foreign Private Issuer
Pursuant to Rule 13a-16 or 15d-16
of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934
For the
month of June
2018
RYANAIR HOLDINGS PLC
(Translation
of registrant's name into English)
c/o Ryanair Ltd Corporate Head Office
Dublin
Airport
County Dublin Ireland
(Address
of principal executive offices)
Indicate
by check mark whether the registrant files or will file
annual
reports
under cover Form 20-F or Form 40-F.
Form
20-F..X.. Form 40-F
Indicate
by check mark whether the registrant by furnishing the
information
contained
in this Form is also thereby furnishing the information to
the
Commission
pursuant to Rule 12g3-2(b) under the Securities
Exchange
Act of
1934.
Yes
No ..X..
If
"Yes" is marked, indicate below the file number assigned to the
registrant
in
connection with Rule 12g3-2(b): 82- ________
RYANAIR CALLS FOR URGENT ACTION TO PREVENT MELTDOWN OF EUROPE'S AIR
TRAFFIC CONTROL (ATC)
ATC STAFF SHORTAGES/STRIKES CRISIS IS DISRUPTING MILLIONS OF
PASSENGERS THIS SUMMER
Ryanair,
Europe's largest airline, today (14 June) called for urgent action
by the EU Commission and European Governments to arrest the
alarming deterioration in Europe's ATC services during the months
of May and June, and prevent a full meltdown of ATC services this
summer.
In May
2018:
●
Over 117,000 flights were delayed with 61% (over 71,000
flights) due to ATC staff shortages and strikes.
●
Over 56,000 flights were delayed more than 15 minutes, a
fourfold increase on the 14,000 flights delayed more than 15
minutes in May 2017.
●
Weather delays accounted for 39% (45,000 flights), a
fourfold increase in the 11,000 weather delays of May
2017.
●
Strangely, a majority (almost 60%) of these weather delays
took place on Fridays and Saturdays rather than the other 5 days of
the week, which suggests that ATC providers are using adverse
weather to cover their staff shortages.
●
The EU target delay for 2018 is an average of 0.5 minutes
per flight. However, the current forecast for 2018 is now heading
towards 1.5 minutes per flight, nearly treble the EU
target.
●
In May, Ryanair cancelled just
over 1,000 flights, almost all due to ATC staff shortages and
strikes. This was 24 times the 43 flights cancelled in May
2017.
●
In May, EasyJet cancelled 974
flights compared to just 117 in May 2017.
●
In May, IAG CEO Willie Walsh
said: "The
thing most impacted is ATC strikes and the ongoing ATC environment,
which is a mess. It is destroying traffic throughout Europe. We
thought it would get better in 2018 but it's getting
worse".
Ryanair's
CEO Michael O'Leary said:
"Yet again this weekend, French ATC will strike on Saturday and
Sunday leading to hundreds of flights being cancelled, disrupting
the holiday plans of thousands of passengers. Many of these flights
don't even touch France, yet they will be disruptive because French
ATC requires airlines to cancel overflights while they protect
French domestic routes. Europe's airlines are also suffering
thousands of ATC delays/cancellations because of staff shortages
especially in German and UK ATC providers. These disruptions are
unacceptable, and we call on the UK and German Governments, and the
EU Commission to take urgent and decisive action to ensure that ATC
providers are fully staffed and that overflights are not affected
when national strikes take place, as they repeatedly do in
France.
Europe's ATC providers are approaching the point of meltdown with
hundreds of flights being cancelled daily simply because they don't
have enough staff to deal with them. The situation is particularly
acute at weekends where British and German ATC providers are hiding
behind adverse weather and euphemisms such as "capacity
restrictions" when the truth is they are not rostering enough ATC
staff to cater for the number of flights that are scheduled to
operate.
Urgent action must now be taken by the UK and German Governments,
and the EU Commission, otherwise thousands more flights and
millions of passengers will be disrupted, particularly in the peak
months of July and August, unless this ATC staffing crisis is
addressed".
ENDS
For
further information
please
contact:
Robin
Kiely
Piaras Kelly
Ryanair
DAC
Edelman Ireland
Tel:
+353-1-9451949
Tel: +353-1-678933
SIGNATURES
Pursuant
to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the
Registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf
by the undersigned, hereunto duly authorized.
Date: 14
June, 2018
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By:___/s/
Juliusz Komorek
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Juliusz
Komorek
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Company
Secretary
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