Ryanair to ground maximum flights across Europe by next week

Monday, March 16, 2020

Ryanair just announced its plan to ground the majority of its flights across Europe over the next seven to ten days. The decision comes as the deadly coronavirus continue to spread across the globe and virus affected cases rise in more countries.

Over the past few weeks, the virus spread has resulted in governments taking actions by imposing travel restrictions. Many of such travel bans have arrived without prior notice. The restriction, in turn, has harshly affected the schedules of low-cost carriers. Even the Foreign and Commonwealth Office has issued a warning against all non-essential travel in several popular tourist destinations including Morocco and Malta.

In addition, places like Italy, Greece, Poland, Czech Republic, Austria, Denmark, Norway, Spain, Portugal, Slovakia, Cyprus and Hungary have imposed flight bans on multiple levels. All flights to and from the countries majorly-hit by coronavirus have been restricted. Poland and Norway have also banned all international flights while air services in other countries have drastically reduced in light of the recent events.

Therefore, as a result of these bans, the budget airline has decided to ground the majority of its aircraft fleet across the European Region. The carrier also mentioned that in countries where the aircraft is not grounded, social distancing would inevitably make flying appear as impractical.

Michael O’ Leary, Chief Executive, Ryanair Group said in a press statement that the airline company is doing everything in their power to stand up to the challenges created by the coronavirus outbreak. He said that the virus has compelled National Governments to enable some extraordinary and unprecedented travel restrictions across the region with minimum to no notice. He also informed that these restrictions have had a key negative effect on all schedules of Ryanair Group Airlines’ flights. Therefore the airline is taking all required actions to cut down operating expenses and focus on improving cash flows at each of their airlines.

He also mentioned that the airline is trying to reach out to its passengers and trying to organize rescue flights even in countries with travel bans. He said that the company’s ultimate priority is the health, safety and well-being of its passengers and employees. Ryanair has decided to cut down capacity by 80% for the month April and May, and a complete grounding of the aircraft does not look unlikely.

However, O’Leary has further added that Ryanair is capable of bouncing back from the crisis and is already preparing to come back in action even after reduced or zero schedules when the right time arrives.

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