Fears Ryanair make cut several Buzz routes

Fears are high Ryanair will scrap several routes operated by Buzz, the airline it is set to take over.

Easter holiday plans for thousands of travellers in Europe will have to be altered following a decision to cancel all April flights of low-cost carrier Buzz.

And there are fears that budget airline Ryanair which takes over Buzz on April 1, will also scrap a number of Buzz’s routes.

Ryanair refused to confirm the cancellation of the April Buzz flights today, saying that that it would announce details “before the end of February”.

But a spokeswoman for Buzz, which is owned by Dutch airline KLM, said: “The April flights have been cancelled and this is a Ryanair decision. We are just following orders.”

She went on: “We are not taking bookings for any flights in April. Anybody who is already booked for an April flight will be given a full refund or the opportunity to change their flight.”

Ryanair’s take-over of Buzz, for which it is paying £15m (€21.8m), was announced at the end of last month.

A Ryanair spokeswoman said today: “We want to eliminate Buzz’s annual losses of €30m. The situation is getting worse and Buzz is losing more than €1m a week.”

There is speculation that Ryanair might scrap Buzz routes to some French destinations, including Bergerac, Limoges and Dijon.

Ryanair also prefers to fly to smaller, less well-known airports and could therefore drop Buzz’s flights to Paris, Amsterdam and Frankfurt.