Friday has seen Ryanair cancel 250 flights ahead of a new wave of strikes.
Cabin crews in Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain are taking part in a series of strikes in order to renegotiate contracts.
“It is deeply disappointing that some of our customers and our people in Germany tomorrow will have their flights disrupted by an unnecessary strike called at short notice,” said Ryanair’s chief operations officer, Peter Bellew.
Unions are hoping for pilots to be given contracts in their own countries rather than under Irish law. Earlier this week the airline signed deals with Italian cabin crew unions to provide employment contracts under Italian law.
EU social affairs commissioner Marianne Thyssen told Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary that contracts shouldn’t depend on where the aircraft is registered.
“Respecting EU law is not something over which workers should have to negotiate, nor is it something which can be done differently from country to country,” she said.
“The internal market is not a jungle – it has clear rules on fair labour mobility and worker protection. This is not an academic debate, but about concrete social rights of workers.”
Between 35,000 of 450,000 passengers will experience disruption on Friday.
“We sincerely apologise to those customers affected by these unnecessary strikes on Friday which we have done our utmost to avoid,” Ryanair.
“We now expect our headline profits for the year to be between £570 million and £580 million, at the top half our guidance range. This has been achieved despite higher costs caused by disruption due to third party industrial action and severe weather,” said Easyjet’s chief executive Johan Lundgren.
Shares in Ryanair (LON: RYA) are trading at 13,21 (0933GMT).