Ryanair cancels flights after fresh UK quarantine restrictions
Ryanair is to cancel almost one in five flights scheduled for September and October owing to a drop in bookings, as an increase in Covid-19 cases across Europe has triggered fresh quarantine restrictions on travellers.
Europe’s biggest carrier said forward bookings had “noticeably weakened” in the past 10 days and that it would reduce capacity to reflect lower demand, mainly by cutting flight frequencies rather than entire routes.
The airline said passengers affected by the hundreds of daily flight cancellations in September had already been notified of their options by email, adding that the rest would be told later on Monday.
Ryanair said the biggest cuts in its flight network would be to routes to and from France, Spain and Sweden, as well as Ireland, which has imposed tight quarantine rules. It would not confirm the number of daily cancellations, but it is believed to be around 300-350 per day, as the airline had been planning to operate around 70% of its preCovid schedule, normally up to 2,500 daily flights in peak season.
France was added to the list of countries on the government’s quarantine list with effect from 4am Saturday after a week of speculation, forcing returning passengers to self-isolate for 14 days. Spain was added abruptly at the end of last month.
Demand for travel to countries subject to quarantine protocols has slumped, as tour operators were forced to call off holidays and air passengers sought alternative arrangements or cancelled their plans.
Ryanair said Ireland’s quarantine rules were now the most restrictive of any EU country and called on Dublin to amend its “green list” of safe countries, which includes Germany.
A spokesperson for the airline said: “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.”
Ryanair last month said it hoped to be operating at about 70% of its normal capacity in September, but added that its “worst fear” was recovery being hampered by a second wave of Covid-19 outbreaks and ensuing travel restrictions. The airline plans to make up to 3,000 staff redundant, despite unions agreeing to swingeing pay cuts until demand for air travel revives.
EasyJet, meanwhile, confirmed that three UK bases, at London Stansted, Southend and Newcastle, would close at the end of this month with the loss of 670 jobs. The airline said consultation with unions and the offer of enhanced voluntary redundancy and transfers meant it had “significantly reduced” the number of compulsory redundancies.
Johan Lundgren, its chief executive, said easyJet was forced into the move because of the “unprecedented impact of the pandemic and related travel restrictions, compounded by quarantine measures in the UK, which is impacting demand for travel”.
Airline and travel company stocks took a further hit in trading on Monday as confidence in prospects for foreign travel diminished. Ryanair shares fell 7.6%, while British Airways’ owner IAG was the biggest faller on the FTSE 100, down 5%. EasyJet fell by 4.6%, while the holiday group TUI was down 5%.
The falls followed a day of market carnage on Friday for the firms, with a collective £2bn wiped off the sector’s value after the UK announcement of quarantine rules on France – Britain’s second biggest holiday market – as well as Netherlands and Malta.
The cross-Channel operator Brittany Ferries said it was lobbying the French government to avoid tit-for-tat measures that could dissuade more British holidaymakers from travelling. Christophe Mathieu, the company’s director general, said many were still planning to take trips despite the rules, but admitted that it had already been a disastrous summer season and cautioned against another “exercise in selfharm”.
British Airways is starting to clear out its fleet of Boeing 747s, grounded because of collapsing demand since March. The first of its 31 redundant jumbos to depart Heathrow permanently will fly out on Tuesday for recycling and scrappage in Spain.