Ryanair to operate ‘few, if any’ flights after January due to 'draconian travel restrictions'

The airline carried fewer than 1.9 million passengers last month, compared to 11.2 million passengers in December 2019

The airline said the newly announced Covid restrictions in Ireland, the UK, and a small number of other EU countries will materially reduce its flight schedules and traffic forecast throughout January, February and March.

Ryanair expects to operate “few, if any, flights” to or from Ireland and the UK from the end of January onwards until “draconian travel restrictions are removed.” 

The airline said the newly announced Covid restrictions in Ireland, the UK, and a small number of other EU countries will materially reduce its flight schedules and traffic forecast throughout January, February and March.

Ryanair said it now expects to carry under 1.25 million passengers in January while February and March traffic could fall to as little as 500,000 passengers each month.

The airline has also cut its annual traffic forecast to below 30 million passengers but said it does not expect these flight cuts and further traffic reductions to materially affect its net loss for the year to 31 March 2021 as “many of these flights would have been loss making.” 

Customers affected by further flight cancellations and travel restrictions have been advised they will be sent emails today advising them of their entitlements of free moves and/or refunds.

A spokesperson for Ryanair said Ireland’s Covid-19 travel restrictions are already the most stringent in Europe and the new flight restrictions are “inexplicable and ineffective” when Ireland continues to operate an open border between the Republic and the North of Ireland.

“Since Ireland’s third lockdown will not get rid of the Covid virus, there is an onus on the Irish Government to accelerate the rollout of vaccines, and the fact that the Danish Government, with a similar 5m population, has already vaccinated 10 times more citizens than Ireland shows that emergency action is needed to speed Covid vaccinations in Ireland.” 

Yesterday, the airline announced it carried fewer than 1.9 million passengers last month, compared to 11.2 million passengers in December 2019.