Flight cancellation: Flight to and from Dublin Airport have been cancelled
Two French unions are staging the two-day strike over working conditions.Ryanair has said they have cancelled 170 flights due to the strike action across Thursday and Friday, disrupting more than 30,000 passengers.The Irish airline has said the disruption will mostly affect flights over French airspace en route to their destination including those from Spain to Ireland and the UK to Greece, alongside flights to and from France. Daa spokesperson Graeme McQueen said the flights included eight departures and eight arrivals."As it stands, no cancellations have been confirmed for flights in and out of Cork Airport today," he said.The disruption comes at the start of the European summer holiday season – one of the busiest travel periods of the year.
'Urgent action' needed
France's civil aviation authority, DGAC, has asked airlines to reduce flight schedules at several airports across the country.Ryanair has criticised France for not protecting aircrafts flying over French airspace when national air traffic control strikes are taking place.The airline has called on the head of European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, to take "urgent action", requesting air traffic control services to be "fully staffed" for the first wave of daily departures and for flights going through French airspace to be protected during national strikes. Chief executive of the airline Michael O'Leary said the disruption is "abundantly unfair" on passengers and families booked to go on holiday."Once again European families are held to ransom by French Air Traffic Controllers going on strike. It is not acceptable that overflights over French airspace en route to their destination are being cancelled/delayed as a result of yet another French ATC strike", he added.
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Times
an hour ago
- Times
How Picasso and Old Trafford nerves inspired Juan Mata's art exhibition
Juan Mata is speaking to me from Asturias in northwest Spain. It is a chat via Zoom and so to bridge the gap to London I hold up my tea, which is in a bright red and yellow Valencia CF-branded mug, and in a flash we are smiling and joking like old friends. 'Valencia was very important for me, it was the beginning of everything. So yeah, it should be also in the conversation,' Mata, who made 174 appearances for the Spanish club before joining Chelsea, with whom he won the Champions League, Europa League and FA Cup, in 2011, and then Manchester United three years later. His is an exceptional career in which he also won the World Cup and the Euros with Spain, and it is not over yet. He spent last season in Australia with Western Sydney Wanderers and has yet to decide if he will return there in August. His friends warned him, when he told them he was joining the A-League, that Australia was a cultural desert. And why should this have worried them? Because Mata, 37, loves art. He loves it so much that he has curated, for Manchester, an exhibition, Football City, Art United, where visitors can experience collaborations between 11 artists and 11 footballers. It is an intriguing idea, the most compelling of which comes from the imagination of Eric Cantona, and is about encouraging visitors to understand the pressures of fame by picking out at random a member of the public and placing them under a constant spotlight as they explore the art space. Is such a spotlight something that has been a strain for Mata over his career? 'I love to be anonymous,' he says. 'I love to be in places where you don't get so much attention. I enjoy very much the attention on the pitch. I like to be a kind of protagonist on the pitch every time I try to play football. But off the pitch I'm more comfortable not being in the spotlight and being a bit more relaxed. I had experiences in Japan [with Vissel Kobe] and in Australia where you can live a little bit more relaxed than in certain cities in Europe due to the relevance of football. But one who has been, and still is and probably will always be, in the spotlight is Eric Cantona.' As someone who knows exactly who is her favourite painter — and Mata very politely asks me to spell out Vilhelm Hammershoi so he can look him up — I naturally want to know who is his favourite, but he says it is a process that has taken him from Picasso to Pollock. 'I love to be anonymous and in places where you don't get attention' 'It's for me difficult to have one favourite thing,' he says. 'Whenever I did interviews in the past about one movie, one song, one book, I have many, so it's difficult to single one out. My journey with art started when I was living in Madrid and Reina Sofía is one of my favourite museums. So whenever I wanted to disconnect, apart from doing many other things, I used to go there. And when I saw Guernica, the Picasso painting, for the first time, it was quite striking. After that, and as I got older, I started to read more and visit more galleries and exhibitions, and when I was living in England, I used to go to Whitworth Gallery a lot, which I love. 'It's one of my favourite spaces in Manchester. And then I started to get to know people, like Hans [Ulrich Obrist, artistic director of the Serpentine Gallery and co-curator of the Football City project]. I also met people in Spain, art historians, and I started to learn about the different periods in time. And then I started to realise, oh, okay, I like abstract expressionism, for example. So I like Pollock, I like Lee Krasner, I like [Mark] Rothko. But I also like [René] Magritte, a surrealist. And I also like architecture, for example, Le Corbusier or Tadao Ando. It was very common to see buildings from him when I was living in Japan. And in Japan, I had the chance to go to Naoshima, which is this beautiful island full of art. So it's difficult to pick a single, one artist. It's just a process.' Mata switches effortlessly from discussing art to football, which is why, presumably, this new exhibition is possible. Visitors will gain entry through a tunnel devised by Edgar Davids, the former Dutch midfielder, which is supposed to help the public experience what it feels like to leave the quiet of the dressing room and then stride into a baying arena. 'For me, the tunnel at Old Trafford has always been really special,' he says. 'I mean, it's that beautiful stadium, the Theatre of Dreams, and you're there every two weeks walking through that tunnel and getting to a pitch where you know there's going to be 75,000 people. 'It's quite intense, but also exciting. So it's just the moment before you have to perform and it's the moment where you actually can think about what you want to do. And you can feel the nerves of your team-mates, you can see the opposition team at the same time, lining up. I think it's a very, very important ritual that we have in the sport.' The time difference in the Antipodes meant Mata could not watch as many United games as he would have liked, but he saw enough to understand the club suffered a 'tough season'. 'I like the coach [Ruben Amorim], a young coach with a lot of positivity and energy, and hopefully he can turn things around. Of course, there has been a change in the ownership of which are trying to create financial sustainability in the club. I think they admitted that that was their priority. So hopefully from now on they can really grow on the pitch. That's what I would love. I love the club. 'I like Pollock, I like Krasner, I like Rothko. But I also like Magritte' 'I have so many friends there. I speak a lot with Bruno [Fernandes], who is a very enthusiastic player. And when things are not going well, he suffers a lot. So, I hope that this year is the year where things can be a bit more stable on the pitch and they can really build and bring United where I believe they should be, which is fighting for the biggest trophies there are.' I mention how the arrival of Amorim was widely assumed to mean Fernandes would struggle to be involved. 'I think if Bruno doesn't fit into any system, you should create a system in which he can fit because he is just so good as a player and as a person, as a leader,' Mata says. 'I think he is instrumental for Man United.' United's decline is one of football's great mysteries, as is the way Spain, at club and international level, know how to win so unerringly. When Chelsea won the Conference League in May it brought to an end a run of 27 finals involving Spanish domestic and international teams that they had won. Mata also won the Champions League and Europa League with Chelsea DARREN WALSH/GETTY IMAGES 'I don't have the 100 per cent accurate reply,' he says, before giving as close to a complete assessment as you will get, 'but I think it's a combination of things. 'I think one is the relevance and importance of football in our society and of course it is the same in England too and in other countries. But in Spain, football is like a religion. You have the big teams, you have the smaller teams, which in the smaller cities everyone follows. 'All kids play football since the age of two or three. Before more than now, I would say, and I think that's something generational. But we have, I believe, a good understanding of the game. 'We have good coaches, so we have good education coming through the academies. We have teams that normally give opportunity to the players, so we have a good system of how to get to our first team with the academy, with Segunda División and the different leagues that we have. We have, I would say, a good mentality and a good understanding of what being a professional football player means. So, like you say, competition is something that we are born with. 'I saw foxes… I don't know if that's a sign that my spirit animal is a fox' 'We always think about playing in a nice way, but also trying to win all the time. I remember when I was in the Spanish national team, under-15 and under-16, we were always competing for winning. I think that gets into your DNA. Basically, I think it's a great system, a good context, great coaches, and innate talent with the ball, which comes from so many people playing in the streets, in the parks and everywhere else.' Mata believes Spain's all-enveloping football culture has been key to their success in the sport ANTHONY DEVLIN FOR THE TIMES And then comes the most surreal moment of any interview I have conducted with an elite player as Mata asks me if he should be buying chicken for the foxes that cross his path. This is because Ella Toone's artwork is inspired by the United midfielder's spirit animal, which is a Shetland Pony — which leads me to wonder if Mata has a spirit animal. 'Lately, and this is actually very good timing for your question, I keep seeing foxes. I don't really know what that means, but over the last year, I was living in London for some time before going to Australia and I was seeing foxes more often than other people that I know, especially at night. So I don't know if that's a sign that my spirit animal is a fox.' Cue a lecture from me on how I keep an extended family of foxes going with shed loads of fresh chicken every week. 'Oh, wow. OK,' he says. 'Good idea.' And my work is done.
Daily Mail
2 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Tens of thousands of passengers face another day of travel hell amid French air traffic control strikes... as chaos hits Eurostar and UK airports
Thousands of British holidaymakers have had their travel plans disrupted after nearly 200 flights were cancelled due to striking workers in France. Budget airline Ryanair slashed more than 160 flights because of French air traffic control strikes, affecting over 30,000 passengers. Cancellations that took place across today which will continue on into tomorrow impact flights to and from France, but will also affect planes flying over the country. On Thursday, chaos also erupted on the Eurostar as travellers flooded social media with complaints they had been left stranded at terminals with delays of up to four hours. All trains from London St Pancras to Paris were cancelled die to a fire on the track. But the railway company came under fire from furious holidaymakers as they claimed Eurostar had entered a social media blackout, after not responding to their queries. 'Stuck on a hot, cramped 13.31 train from St Pancras to GDN. Absolute s***. Awful comms from Eurostar. Stuck at Haute Picardie, a station with nothing around. Unable to get off the train. We were meant to arrive 3 hours ago,' wrote one angry passenger. 'Can we please get some proper information at Gare du Nord? Your live departures online and departure boards here are showing wildly different information and there is nothing forthcoming here at all. Wildly over-crowded and over-heated and no info at all,' said another. Passengers carry their luggage at Roissy Charles-de-Gaulle Airport in Paris today One more added: 'Still NO information from anybody at @EurostarUK. Train now 90 mins late and all communications out of date. Customer service must have gone home and left all their customers in the lurch'. On Thursday Ryanair chief executive Michael O'Leary renewed calls on EU Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen, to take 'urgent action' to reform European Union air traffic control (ATC) services in light of the disruption. Mr O'Leary said: 'Once again, European families are held to ransom by French air traffic controllers going on strike. 'It is not acceptable that overflights over French airspace en route to their destination are being cancelled/delayed as a result of yet another French ATC strike. 'It makes no sense and is abundantly unfair on EU passengers and families going on holidays'. What to do if your flight is cancelled Travel experts said delayed passengers should check their insurance policy to see if it covers them for such events – although they are unlikely to be able to claim compensation from the airline. Alvaro Iturmendi, travel insurance expert, told MailOnline: 'If you are due to fly in this region over the next couple days, the best thing to do is to keep up to date with your airline, as they'll issue any announcements of delays or cancellations. 'And even if your flight looks unaffected, it's always best to still leave plenty of time to get to the airport in case of any delays or queues. 'As these strikes are from airport staff, it's unlikely you will be able to claim compensation for any delays or cancellations as a result. But if your travel insurance policy covers you for such events, then you may be able to reclaim any costs this way. 'Check your travel insurance policy to see if it covers strike-related delays or cancellations, especially if the strikes were announced before you bought your ticket.' Some 15 Ryanair flights arriving at or departing from London Stansted Airport were cancelled earlier today while others have been axed at Manchester and Edinburgh. Hundreds of flights operated by other airlines have been cancelled in France today, with the strike by two French unions also affecting air traffic across western Europe. In France, half of all flights in Nice and a quarter of flights at Paris Orly and Paris Charles de Gaulle airports, one of Europe's busiest hubs, have been cancelled. Tomorrow, the situation is expected to become even more tense at Paris airports and Beauvais, where the DGAC has ordered a 40 per cent reduction in the number of flights. Easyjet said it would cancel 274 flights today and tomorrow, while Air France adapted its flight schedule and British Airways was using larger aircraft to mitigate disruption. Lufthansa reduced its schedule for the two days, affecting some flights in and out of Nice, Paris, Marseille, Lyon and Montpellier airports – while Luxair warned that 'additional delays and schedule changes are possible across other destinations'. Disruption is expected to worsen tomorrow on the eve of the start of the European summer holidays, which is one of the busiest travel periods of the year. French air traffic controllers launched the two-day strike today to protest understaffing and 'toxic management'. One passenger, Nadia Rivet, a 51-year-old bank employee, told AFP: 'We're trying to stay positive, there are worse things, but it's annoying.' She was planning to spend six days in the French capital but her flight from the south-western city of Pau was cancelled this morning. 'Everyone has the right to strike, but it's punitive. Air traffic controllers aren't the worst off,' Ms Rivet said, adding she hoped to have more luck tomorrow. Other passengers tried to take the disruptions on the chin. 'Striking is a right,' said Carol Jelic, a 66-year-old Canadian travelling to Stuttgart told AFP at Paris CDG. 'We can't lose that right. But it does inconvenience.' Eric Nouen, a 60-year-old travelling to Montpellier from French Guiana, a region of France in South America, said he was not going to complain. 'Right now, everyone could go on strike. Everyone has a reason right now.' Ryanair has long-campaigned for an overhaul of ATC services across Europe. It wants the EU to ensure ATC services are fully staffed for the first wave of daily departures, as well as to protect overflights during national ATC strikes. 'These two splendid reforms would eliminate 90 per cent of all ATC delays and cancellations, and protect EU passengers from these repeated and avoidable ATC disruptions due to yet another French ATC strike,' Mr O'Leary added. Also today, easyJet said it had made 124 cancellations in advance for today and are making 150 cancellations in advance of tomorrow, across its European flight programme. This is out of 1,857 flights planned to operate today. An easyJet spokesman told MailOnline: 'The national strike action by French air traffic controllers today is impacting all airlines operating to and from French airports and using French airspace. 'As required by the French authorities (DGAC) easyJet proactively cancelled some flights in advance and customers were contacted directly with options to transfer to another flight for free or a refund. 'As this action could result in further disruption to airline's flying programmes, we advise all customers travelling on July 3 or 4 to check the status of their flights on our Flight Tracker online for the most up to date information. While this is outside of our control, we will do all we can to minimise the impact of the strike action. 'On behalf of our passengers we are extremely unhappy with the strike action, particularly given the current performance of French ATC which has been the leading cause of airspace delays in Europe this summer. 'Long term solutions must be found for our customers and crew who suffer repeated disruption.' And a British Airways spokesman said: 'Like all airlines, due to industrial action by French Air Traffic Control, we've had to make some adjustments to our schedule. 'This is outside of our control, and we've apologised to our customers for the disruption to their travel plans. Our teams are working to get our customers to their destinations as quickly as possible.' France's second-largest air traffic controllers' union, UNSA-ICNA, launched the action to demand better working conditions and more staff. The union is protesting 'chronic understaffing', the planned introduction of a clock-in system, outdated equipment and 'toxic management practices that are incompatible with the requirements of calm and safety'. 'The DGAC is failing to modernise the tools that are essential to air traffic controllers, even though it continues to promise that all necessary resources are being made available,' UNSA-ICNA said in a statement. 'The systems are on their last legs, and the [air traffic control] agency is constantly asking more of its staff to compensate for its difficulties.' It was joined by the third largest union, USAC-CGT, which said the DGAC had failed to comprehend the frustration felt by controllers. The DGAC did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the trade unions' concerns. Their complaints echo grievances expressed by air traffic controllers in the US over outdated infrastructure, dramatic staffing shortfalls and failing technology. Transport Minister Philippe Tabarot called union demands 'unacceptable' and said carriers would lose 'millions of euros' as a result. 'Constantly choosing dates that will cause the most inconvenience to passengers does not seem to be the right approach,' he said today. The main air traffic controllers' union, SNCTA, had no plans to join the strike.
Times
2 hours ago
- Times
Ryanair demands EU action after strikes ground hundreds of flights
Ryanair has demanded that Brussels crack down on striking French air traffic controllers after Europe's busiest airline was forced to cancel hundreds of flights on Thursday, disrupting the travel plans of tens of thousands of passengers. Hundreds of flights were also cancelled by easyJet, another of the continent's big short-haul players. French air traffic controllers have called the latest round of industrial action in a long-running dispute over 'chronic' staff shortages and what unions claim is an authoritarian management culture with unacceptable policing of workers. Ryanair said the air traffic controllers were, for the umpteenth summer, using the start of the holiday season to leverage their bargaining power. The French school holidays begin at the end of the week. • French air traffic control strikes: which airports and flights are affected? Michael O'Leary, chief executive of Ryanair, said the regularity of French strikes meant such industrial action was now 'recreational.' He is demanding that Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, steps in urgently to reform air traffic control services across the European Union. He has been calling for similar reforms in the UK over what he has claimed is mismanagement at the privatised National Air Traffic Services. The industrial action in France is not just affecting flights due to land in the country but also overflights going through French airspace, for instance between the UK and Greece or Spain. 'Once again European families are held to ransom by French air traffic controllers,' said O'Leary. 'It is not acceptable that flights over French airspace en route to their destination are being cancelled or delayed as a result of yet another French strike. It is abundantly unfair on passengers and families going on holidays. 'Ursula von der Leyen must take urgent action to reform European Union air traffic control by ensuring that services are fully staffed for the first wave of daily departures, and protecting overflights. These two reforms would eliminate 90 per cent of all delays and cancellations.' After the announcement of two days of industrial action, the French authorities have been telling airlines to reduce their number of services to Paris to mitigate the problem. IAG, the British Airways group, is understood to be flying fewer services but with larger aircraft. EU data indicates France has the worst record for airspace disruption. The French government has condemned the strikes and said they would result in the partly state-owned Air France losing millions of euros. 'The demands made by minority unions are unacceptable, as is the decision to hold this strike at the start of the holiday season,' said Philippe Tabarot, the French transport minister.
