Euro 2008 ATC Strike Champions

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Ryanair News
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News Release
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19.06.08
Euro 2008 ATC Strike Champions

ITALY 9 - FRANCE 9

On Saturday, 21st June 2008 Italian ATC will abandon passengers yet again. This will be the 18th time since January 2007 that either Italian or French ATC have gone on strike. This represents a shameful strike rate of once every four weeks.

Inevitably, hundreds of flights to/from France and Italy will be delayed and cancelled, and passengers holidays will be ruined as these protected State employees walk off the job - yet again. There is no justification for these repeated ATC strikes in France and Italy, particularly on busy weekends during the Summer season.

David O’Brien, Ryanair’s Director of Flight & Ground Operations confirmed today:

“We have requested Mr. Silvano Manera, Head of ENAC, (the Italian Regulator) to spend less time protecting his former employer Alitalia and more time protecting Italian passengers and tourists from this 18th strike, and further disruptions caused by ENAC mismanagement. We have also requested the EU Commission to take action to ensure passengers are directly compensated by ATC providers for these failures.

“It appears there is one rule for the big State monopolies and another for some airlines and their passengers. On behalf of our 60 million passengers, we will continue to highlight the failures of those whose job it is to protect airline passengers from the failures and abuse of Big State Monopolies”.