Mr. Michael O'Leary:

We were forced to cancel 600 flights that day because nine French air traffic controllers not only went on strike but picketed their two different air traffic control centres. Six hundred flights is approximately 120,000 passengers. We then have to put them up in hotels, pay their right to care and provide them with refunds. Under EU law, we are allowed to recover our costs from whoever caused the delays except every national air traffic control provider has national protection from being sued so we are stuck in the middle. We would rather not be stuck in the middle. We would rather not have the delays in the first place. What could happen is in a single European sky, if the French want to go on strike and cannot provide the services, we call Ireland and say, "You provide the service across France that day. Not a bother, off you go." There is no such thing as an air traffic controllers' strike in North America. Well they do occasionally go on strike but Reagan fired them all. I am not saying that is a solution. Reagan fired them all in 1980. They are federal employees so they are not allowed to go on strike. There are many other solutions here such as binding arbitration before going on strike. Many times French air traffic controllers go on strike not because they want more pay; it is because they do not like Macron or did not like the result of the football match. It is recreational striking. All the strikes generally take place on Fridays and then they do not show up for work on Saturdays so they have a three-day weekend. Nobody will tackle this across Europe but we are the ones telling our passengers: "I'm very sorry, your flight to Italy is cancelled because nine guys in France are on strike."