Ryanair cuts flight schedules by 20% in September and October as bookings drop due to restrictions

Ryanair on Monday announced a 20% reduction in the number of its flights in September and October, citing a drop in bookings due to a resurgence of cases of the new coronavirus in Europe.

Ryanair had planned to run at 70% of its capacity in September but has no other choice than to revise the number of flights planned, in particular to Sweden, France and Spain, three countries targeted by the quarantine imposed by the British government. Routes to Ireland are also likely to be cut, with Ryanair citing the current restrictive green list.

The company explains that these reductions will mainly involve a reduction in flight frequencies rather than complete service stops.

“Over the past two weeks as a number of EU countries have raised travel restrictions, forward bookings, especially for business travel into September and October, have been negatively affected, and it makes sense to reduce frequencies so that we tailor our capacity to demand over the next two months,” said a spokesperson for the company quoted in a press release.

Passengers affected by the cancellation of their flights in September have been warned by e-mail, with October passengers due to be contacted later on Monday..

Ryanair is also asking the Irish government to amend its list of countries to which it imposes a quarantine, in order to exclude Germany in particular, where the cases are less numerous than in Ireland.

This announcement from Ryanair confirms that the resumption of air traffic, after months of stoppage with confinements, is slower than expected given the still very active circulation of the virus in Europe.