Ryanair strike: your rights and compensation

• Ryanair's notice of passenger rights lists labour disputes among the extraordinary circumstances that release it from compensation. For a strike by Ryanair's own staff, the Court of Justice of the European Union held the opposite: it is not an extraordinary circumstance (Airhelp v SAS, C-28/20, 2021), so cancellations and delays of 3 hours or more it causes generally give a right to compensation.
• Ryanair's cabin crew in Spain, called out by the unions USO and SITCPLA, struck from June 2022 and then four days a week until January 2023, over their first collective agreement. Spain's Audiencia Nacional later ruled, in December 2023, that Ryanair had breached the right to strike during that dispute.
• In July 2022, strikes by Ryanair pilots and cabin crew in Belgium, Spain, Italy and Portugal cancelled or disrupted around 600 flights.
• From 15 August 2025, the union UGT called out the staff of Azul Handling, the company of the Ryanair group that handles its flights in Spain, for partial stoppages several days a week until the end of 2025. Ryanair reported that the strike had no impact on its operations.
• Many Ryanair flights cross French airspace, so French air traffic control strikes hit them hard. A strike by air traffic controllers is outside Ryanair's control and usually rules compensation out, but Ryanair must still refund or re-route you, and look after you while you wait.
• Your flight may have been operated by another airline of the Ryanair group, such as Malta Air, Lauda Europe or Buzz: the airline named on your boarding pass as operating the flight owes the compensation, under the same rules.

In 2021 the Court of Justice of the European Union held that a strike called by a union of the airline's own staff, such as its pilots or cabin crew, to obtain better pay or conditions is not an extraordinary circumstance: it is part of the normal running of an airline, which can expect labour disputes with its staff (Airhelp v SAS, C-28/20). Cancellations and delays of 3 hours or more caused by such a strike therefore generally give a right to compensation.

The same applies to a so-called wildcat strike, when a large part of the crew calls in sick at once after a surprise announcement by management (Court of Justice, Krüsemann, C-195/17, 2018).

A strike by people who do not work for the airline, such as air traffic controllers, airport security staff or the staff of the airport itself, is usually an extraordinary circumstance: it is outside the airline's control. If it caused your cancellation or delay, compensation is usually not owed, provided the airline did what it reasonably could to limit the disruption, including re-routing you on another airline's flight when that was faster (Court of Justice, TAP, C-74/19, 2020).

Air traffic control strikes in one country also hit flights that only cross its airspace: a French controllers' strike delays flights between Spain and Germany, for example.

Even when the strike is an extraordinary circumstance, your other rights stay intact. If your flight is cancelled you choose between a refund of your ticket within 7 days and another flight to your destination. While you wait, the airline must offer meals and refreshments, two phone calls or emails and, if you have to stay overnight, a hotel and transport to it (Articles 8 and 9). Keep the receipts for anything you have to pay yourself.

Strikes are often announced days or weeks ahead. If the airline cancelled your flight and told you at least 14 days before departure, no compensation is owed, but you keep the choice between a refund and another flight. If it told you later than that, the usual notice rules for cancellations apply: compensation can be due if the strike was by the airline's own staff.

• Ryanair
• Strikes