Here are the cuts at Ryanair
Ryanair closes 3 bases and reduces winter flight capacity to 40%. Here are the details
Strong turbulence at Ryanair. The airline, due to Covid, revises the winter flight program, reducing capacity from 60% to 40% the previous year. Closure of three bases and significant cuts in base aircraft in Belgium, Germany, Spain, Portugal and Vienna are expected.
All the details.
A SECTOR IN CRISIS
The return to an increase in infections and restrictions on flights imposed by EU governments have led to a drastic reduction in air travel. This, writes Ryanair, led to "a slight weakening of advance bookings in October, but materially in November and December".
REVIEW OF CAPACITY
This weakening led the company to further reduce the winter program (November-March), "bringing the capacity from 60% to 40% the previous year." Ryanair, in particular, plans to maintain up to 65% of its winter route network, but with reduced frequencies.
CUTTING OF BASES AND AIRCRAFT
The program of the Irish airline also includes the winter closure of the bases in Cork, Shannon and Toulouse and a significant cut "to base aircraft in Belgium, Germany, Spain, Portugal and Vienna", reads a company statement.
THE FORECAST: 38 MILLION PASSENGERS
The group inevitably also revises its travel forecasts: with significantly reduced winter capacity and load factors of around 70%, the company expects traffic for the whole year (FY21) to drop to approx. 38 million guests.
“We continued to flex our capacity in September and October, reflecting both market conditions and changing government restrictions, with the aim of sustaining a 70% load factor, which allows us to trade as close to breakeven as possible. and minimize cash burn. Although the Covid issue is constantly evolving and difficult to predict, we now have to reduce our traffic forecast for the full year to 38 million guests, ”said Ryanair Group CEO Michael O'Leary.
DISMISSALS IN SIGHT
And O'Leary also announced that the revision of the company program in the coming months will have inevitable repercussions also on the employee side: "It is inevitable, given the extent of these cuts, that this winter we will implement more unpaid leave and sharing of the work in the bases where we have agreed on a reduction in working hours and salaries ", explains the CEO, admitting that there will be important staff cuts in the bases where" an agreement on working hours and cuts has not yet been reached wages ".
ACCUSATIONS TO EU GOVERNMENTS
The cause of all this is not just Covid. Governments also have their responsibilities: "Although we deeply regret these cuts in winter schedules, they have been imposed on us by the mismanagement of EU air travel," says Ryanair's CEO bluntly.
THE HAPPENS
Not all, however, is lost. And something governments could still do. O'Leary calls for the immediate adoption of the European Union 'Traffic Light System' "which allows air travel to continue safely between EU states on a regional basis (without unfair travel limitations) in those European countries and regions , who are able to demonstrate that their Covid case rates are less than 50 per 100,000 inhabitants ”.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/smartcity/tutti-i-tagli-in-casa-ryanair/ on Thu, 15 Oct 2020 10:44:26 +0000.