Concern over jobs in travel as f lights reduced
RYANAIR will ‘severely reduce’ its flights to mainland Spain and its islands due to the nation’s lockdown status.
In a move likely to impact many Irish holidaymakers, the budget airline announced yesterday that Ryanair Group Airlines – including Buzz and Lauda – has been forced to severely reduce flights to and from Spain, the Balearic Islands and Canary Islands from midnight on March 19.
Affected customers will be contacted by email to be informed of their options, and are being told to not phone the airline.
Aer Lingus also appealed to customers yesterday not to contact its call centre unless they are due to travel within 72 hours.
A statement from the airline said: ‘While we have expanded our call centre and social media teams in recent days, we know that guests experiencing flight disruption are having difficulty getting through to us.
‘We want to ensure that our social media and call centre teams can deal with those experiencing flight disruption and with imminent travel plans.’
Meanwhile, the Irish Travel Agents Association has said it is ‘deeply concerned’ by coronavirus cancellations and wants bridging loans and tax cuts along with social welfare payments from the State to help members get through the crisis.
The ITAA called ‘extraordinary support measures’ for travel and tourism businesses at this time.
‘A prolonged period of travel restrictions will lead to a significant drop in the numbers of public travelling and ultimately to job losses in the Irish travel sector,’ it said.
The group suggested that the Government consider measures such as bridging loans, relief to business rates, and Vat and PAYE deadline extensions and reliefs.
‘As the Government has increased unemployment payment for individuals unable to work in isolation, the ITAA are seeking to come to an agreement on a payment equivalent equal to weekly social welfare payments to be made to employers and says employers’ PRSI waiver should be extended until the end of the year,’ it said.