Ryanair flights: airline to reduce capacity by 20% for travel to Spain, France and other countries - here’s what it means

The frequency of flights to several popular holiday destinations reduced due to the tightening of coronavirus restrictions

Ryanair has said that it will reduce its flight capacity by 20 per cent in September and October, following the tightening of coronavirus restrictions in some European destinations.

The budget airline has reported “notably weakened” forward bookings over the past ten days, which have been driven by the uncertainty caused by a spike in coronavirus cases overseas.

Which flights will be cut?

Spain, France and Sweden are among the countries where capacity will reduce

Ryanair has said the cuts will see the frequency of flights to several popular holiday destinations reduced due to the rising number of infection rates.

The fall in capacity is to be “heavily focused” on countries that have seen such an increase in cases and travel restrictions reinstated, including Spain, France and Sweden.

However, the airline said that most of the cuts would be a reduction in the frequency of flights, rather than route closures.

The airline also said that Ireland will be affected to a large degree due to its “uniquely restrictive” quarantine restrictions on many European countries.

In a statement, Ryanair said: “These capacity cuts and frequency reductions for the months of September and October are unavoidable given the recent weakness in forward bookings due to Covid restrictions in a number of EU countries.

“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.”

What does it mean for customers?

Ryanair has said that any passengers who are affected by the reduced capacity in September will have been notified in an email which advises them of their options.

Those who are due to travel in October should also have received a similar email.