With summer just around the corner, thousands of people are set to jet across Europe.

However, there are growing concerns that some of those flights won’t even get off the ground.

Last summer travellers experienced the worst air traffic control delays since 2001, and the same is expected again for this year.

To tackle this issue, Ryanair are calling for reforms to increase staff numbers and the deployment of better technology.

Head of communications at the company Jade Kirwan told The Pat Kenny Show that while strikes have been an issue over the past few years, "the big problem at the moment is staff shortages”.

“Because the ATC [Air Traffic Controller] providers had let go of staff during COVID and were not able to recuperate that staff; they'd halted training,” she said.

“So, there was nobody coming up the ladder to replenish.”

Ms Kirwan said that while passenger numbers are down from pre-COVID numbers, they are on the rise, and staffing shortages are already presenting huge operational issues.

Ryanair aeroplanes with the control tower in the background at Dublin Airport. Photo: Sasko Lazarov/© RollingNews.ie

“It's like if you take, for example, the M50, if you close the lane on the M50, you can see huge congestion builds up - and it's the exact same in the sky,” she said.

“So, each airport or airspace will have certain sectors; the Canaries, for example, last year had 11 sectors.

“That means that they have the adequate number of air traffic controllers to manage those sectors.

“This year they've reduced that to 10, but the traffic volumes are up – so, you can imagine, you're putting more traffic in with less capacity, naturally it's going to cause delays.”

According to Ms Kirwan, these delays can lead to pilots and crew reaching the limit of their working hours, which means flights may have to be rescheduled for the following day.

Ryanair are calling for National Transport Ministers to ensure adequate staffing of their ATC services by instating a European-wide minimum training period, and "harmonizing things like equipment and procedures” so that controllers are capable of working in other countries.

Main image: An air traffic controller in the control tower of Zurich international airport is monitoring the airport's airfield. Image: EThamPhoto / Alamy. 7 June 2013