Ryanair Calls on EU Commission to End Overflight Chaos Amid Belgrade ATC Strikes That Disrupt Nearly 18,000 Passengers
Ryanair, Europe’s largest and most popular airline, has issued a forceful call to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen mockingly referred to by the airline as “Ursula von Derlayed-Again” to urgently intervene and reform what the airline describes as Europe’s “broken” air traffic control (ATC) system.
The demand follows massive flight disruptions caused by a newly initiated 40-day strike by Belgrade air traffic controllers (ATC), which began on Wednesday, 20 August. In just the first two days of the strike (20–21 August), 99 Ryanair flights were delayed, affecting an estimated 17,800 passengers across the EU. However, the vast majority of these travelers were not flying to or from Serbia but merely overflying Serbian airspace en route to destinations across Europe and beyond.
Ryanair is now pressing EU leadership to take immediate steps to protect overflights during ATC strikes, citing Serbia’s inadequate legal protections for such flights, which stand in contrast to the laws of other EU nations like Italy, Spain, and Greece.
A Regional Strike With Continental Impact
The Belgrade ATC strike is expected to continue for a staggering 40 days, sending ripples throughout the European aviation network. While strikes within the aviation sector are not uncommon, the implications of this particular dispute stretch far beyond Serbia’s borders.
The reason? Overflight traffic.
Serbia, located in the heart of the Balkan Peninsula, serves as a major corridor for air traffic between Western and Eastern Europe. Flights between countries such as the UK and Turkey, Germany and the Middle East, or Poland and Greece often rely on transit through Serbian airspace. Therefore, disruptions within Serbia’s ATC system can have widespread consequences for routes that have no connection to Serbia as a destination.
This makes the Belgrade ATC strike not only a national matter, but a European one. In the first 48 hours alone, 99 Ryanair flights were delayed, causing inconvenience for nearly 18,000 passengers. These delays are expected to mount in the coming weeks as the strike continues.
Overflights Left Unprotected by Serbian Law
Unlike some EU countries with more robust labor and aviation laws, Serbia does not have provisions in place to guarantee minimum ATC services for overflights during strikes. This means that when air traffic controllers walk off the job in Serbia, flights that simply pass through its airspace—not landing or taking off—can still be severely affected.
In contrast, countries such as Italy, Spain, and Greece mandate minimum service levels during ATC strikes. These laws often include the protection of international overflights, ensuring that flights which are merely transiting national airspace continue with minimal disruption.
Ryanair argues that the lack of such legal safeguards in Serbia places an unfair burden on EU passengers and carriers. With no mechanisms in place to reroute airspace efficiently or guarantee uninterrupted overflight service, airlines and travelers alike are left at the mercy of national labor disputes in third countries.
Ryanair Blames EU Inaction for Ongoing Chaos
Ryanair has long been a vocal critic of the European Commission’s handling of airspace disruptions due to ATC strikes. This latest strike has provided the airline with another opportunity to highlight what it perceives as chronic EU inaction.
In its statement, Ryanair mocked European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen—nicknaming her “Ursula von Derlayed-Again”—for what it sees as a lack of urgency in tackling one of the most pressing operational challenges facing the European aviation industry.
“This is completely unfair,” Ryanair’s statement reads, “and highlights the need to protect EU passenger flights from being unnecessarily disrupted by national ATC strikes, just because they happen to cross that airspace.”
The airline is now demanding that the EU act decisively to prevent overflight disruption during national strikes—not just in Serbia, but across all European and neighboring airspaces that affect intra-EU connectivity.
A Call for Coordinated EU-Wide Reform
While the Belgrade strike is a national issue, Ryanair’s demands point to a broader need for coordinated EU airspace governance. In the airline’s view, the European Commission must take the lead in implementing an EU-wide policy that protects overflight routes from being disrupted by localized labor actions.
Such a policy might include:
- Mandating minimum overflight services during ATC strikes: Similar to existing laws in Italy and Spain, ensuring that international flights can pass through national airspace even during labor disruptions.
- Establishing cross-border airspace coordination: Allowing neighboring ATC providers to temporarily manage airspace when a country’s own services are interrupted.
- Implementing a Single European Sky framework: A long-delayed initiative that would integrate and optimize European airspace management to reduce delays, fuel consumption, and emissions.
Despite being proposed over a decade ago, the Single European Sky (SES) initiative has been repeatedly stalled due to political disagreement and resistance from national governments and ATC unions. Ryanair and other airlines argue that the current fragmented system continues to penalize passengers and operators alike.
The Passenger Experience: Delays Without a Destination
For travelers affected by the Belgrade ATC strike, the frustration is palpable. Imagine boarding a flight from London to Antalya, or Warsaw to Athens, only to be delayed because of labor unrest in a country you aren’t even visiting.
This disconnection between cause and consequence underscores why overflights must be better protected under EU regulation. Travelers are increasingly demanding reliability and accountability—not just from airlines, but from the entire aviation ecosystem, including regulators and infrastructure providers.
Ryanair maintains that the EU has a duty to act on behalf of the nearly 18,000 passengers already impacted by the Belgrade strike—and the many more who will be affected if this and future ATC disputes remain unaddressed.
What Needs to Change?
With the Belgrade ATC strike scheduled to continue through late September, the situation is likely to get worse before it improves. Airlines will be forced to reroute or delay hundreds more flights, with tens of thousands of passengers potentially facing disruption.
In the face of this ongoing crisis, Ryanair is urging the European Commission to:
- Publicly commit to protecting overflights during all national ATC strikes.
- Accelerate the adoption of the Single European Sky.
- Pressure non-EU states that affect EU flights (like Serbia) to adopt EU-like minimum service laws.
- Coordinate with Eurocontrol to manage contingency plans during prolonged ATC disruptions.
Without such action, Ryanair warns that European airspace will remain at the mercy of fragmented national policies, labor disputes, and outdated regulatory frameworks.
Ryanair’s latest appeal to the European Commission highlights a growing rift between airline operators and regulators over how to handle airspace disruptions in an increasingly interconnected continent.
The Belgrade ATC strike has exposed a glaring weakness in the current system: passengers flying between two EU countries can be significantly delayed by a strike in a third country, without warning, compensation, or recourse. This, Ryanair argues, is not just inefficient—it’s unfair.
As Ryanair continues its campaign to hold EU leadership accountable, the pressure now falls on Ursula von der Leyen and her administration to prove that they can protect European passengers not just on paper, but in the air—across all borders and all skies.