Ryanair has issued an apology to its customers following several delays and cancellations this week. The budget airline stated on its website that these disruptions were caused by a shortage of air traffic control (ATC) staff and they had no control over the situation.

Their apology comes after holidaymakers going to and from Brussels were told their flights may be disrupted. In a separate travel update, Ryanair warned customers: “Affected passengers travelling to/from Brussels South Charleroi on Fri 13 Sep have been notified via Email, Push and SMS about the cancellations of their flight due to local ground handling strike.

“We regret any inconvenience caused to passengers by this local ground handling strike, which is outside of Ryanair’s control.”

In their apology explaining the situation they say: “Ryanair, Europe’s No.1 airline, on Fri 13 Sep apologised to its passengers for the excessive flight delays caused by European ATC staff shortages today Fri 13 Sep which is affecting all European airlines.”

They further explain: “ATC services, which have had the benefit of no French ATC strike disruption this summer, continue to underperform (despite flight volumes being 5% behind 2019 levels) with repeated “staff shortages”.

“On Fri 13 Sep, 12% of Ryanair’s first wave departures (65 of 534 aircraft) were delayed due to ATC “staff shortages”. These repeated flight delays due to ATC mismanagement are unacceptable.”

In their apology, the airline said: “We apologise to our passengers for these repeated ATC flight delays which are deeply regrettable but beyond Ryanair’s control. We encourage passengers to visit atcruinedourholiday.com and demand that the EU Commission take urgent action to improve Europe’s ATC system.”