Ryanair announced on Friday that they will cut their October capacity by an additional 20 percent, attributable to continued Irish and EU travel restrictions. The additional cut is on top of a 20 percent October schedule reduction announced in mid-August.
Today (September 18, 2020) Ryanair announced that they will cut their October capacity by an additional 20 percent, on top of a 20 percent cut announced in mid-August. The carrier attributes the damage in booking demand to continued Irish and EU government travel restrictions. Ryanair expects its October capacity to fall from 50 to 40 percent compared to their October 2019 schedule, but plans on maintaining a load factor of over 70 percent with the reduced schedule. In Friday’s announcement, a Ryanair Spokesperson said,
“We are disappointed to reduce our October capacity from 50% of 2019 to 40%. However, as customer confidence is damaged by Government mismanagement of Covid travel policies, many Ryanair customers are unable to travel for business or urgent family reasons without being subjected to defective 14 day quarantines.
"While it is too early yet to make final decisions on our winter schedule (from Nov to March), if current trends and EU Governments’ mismanagement of the return of air travel and normal economic activity continue, then similar capacity cuts may be required across the winter period.
"We call on Transport Minister Eamon Ryan to explain why over two months later he still hasn’t implemented any of the 14 recommendations of the Governments Aviation Task Force which were submitted to Government on 7 July last. He should also explain why NPHET has kept Ireland locked up like North Korea since 1 July, while at the same time Italy and Germany removed all intra-EU travel restrictions and have delivered Covid case rates which are less than half the rate, which NPHET has presided over in Ireland. Intra EU air travel is not the problem and these defective travel bans are not a solution.”
Ryanair Holdings, plc is Europe’s largest airline conglomerate and the parent company of Buzz, Lauda, Malta Air, and Ryanair DAC. The airline usually carries over 154 million passengers annually with over 2,500 daily departures. Ryanair typically serves over 200 destinations in 40 countries with a fleet of 460 Boeing 737 Family aircraft and 20 Airbus A320s. Currently, the low-cost carrier has an additional 321 Boeing 737s on order and the Ryanair Group expects annual traffic to reach 200 million customers by FY 2024. Ryanair has maintained a stellar safety record for over 34 years and prides itself on being “Europe’s greenest cleanest airline group,” promising customers a reduction in CO2 emissions of up to 50%, versus the “Big 4 EU major airlines.”
Source: Ryanair
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