Ryanair has announced it will cut its October capacity by a further 20 per cent, in addition to the 20 per cent already announced in mid-August.
They said it expects it to fall from 50 per cent to approxitmaley 40 per cent on its October 2019 levels.
Ryanair confirmed the capacity reductions were necessary due to damage caused to forward bookings "by continuous changes in EU Government travel restrictions and policies."
They said they did welcome the EU Commission’s plan to remove intra-EU travel restrictions, subject only to the ECDC weekly update on Covid case / positive test trend rates by EU country and region.
Customer confidence
Ryanair is now calling for a "coordinated approach" to be implemented by all EU States, especially Ireland, so that EU citizens can make essential bookings for business and family travel, free from the worry of flight cancellations and/or defective quarantine restrictions.
Speaking about today's news, a Ryanair spokesperson said:
“We are disappointed to reduce our October capacity from 50 per cent of 2019 to 40 per cent.
"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, 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.
They are calling on Transport Minister Eamon Ryan to explain why it has been 2 months since the Aviation Task Force submitted 14 recommendations to help support the aviation industry and none of the them as of yet have been implemented.
