Ryanair to cut passenger targets amid lockdown travel curbs

Ryanair has announced it will be slashing its annual passenger targets following the implementation of new lockdowns in the UK and Ireland to tackle a rise in cases owing to new strains of Covid-19 being discovered, the airliner announced on Thursday.

In a statement, the company admitted that these new variants of the virus and the subsequent lockdowns will leave the country with "few, if any" flights.

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Ryanair was critical of the handling of the public health crisis that has ensued from the pandemic, calling on governments to accelerate the rollout of vaccines.

It described the Irish travel bans as "inexplicable and ineffective."

The government of the UK and Ireland have admitted the rapid spread of new, more contagious variants of coronavirus forced their hand, resulting in them implementing travel bans and added they are distributing vaccines as quickly as they can.

In a statement, Ryanair said: "The British and Irish measures will result in few, if any, flights being operated to/from Ireland or the UK from the end of Jan until such time as these draconian travel restrictions are removed."

Many aviation sector players have suggested mandatory Covid testing and various other safety measures are implemented in order to get the sector up and running again after almost a year of being grounded.

Those involved believe it will be healthier for the industry rather than instigating more national lockdowns.

The UK instigated another lockdown earlier this week owing to a new strain of the virus being detected in the country, as well as a spike in cases - roughly 5,000 per day - despite significant vaccine rollout and nearly half a million immunisations.

As of late November, news of vaccines had not dissuaded the aviation sector from implementing mandatory testing on flights, but most welcomed the news.

Ryanair has since slashed its flight schedules from January 21 until the end of lockdown.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said the easing of lockdown rules "will be a slow affair," and many experts are predicting the new measures will be in place until the end of March.

The Irish government has warned people about going on non-essential journeys until at least the end of January but has stated the hospitality sector should expect to remain closed until March.

As a result, Ryanair has amended its passenger forecast from a number of 35 million to between 26-30 million passengers.

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The statement said: “Ryanair does not expect these flight cuts and further traffic reductions will materially affect its net loss for the year to 31 March 2021 since many of these flights would have been loss-making."

The airliner added total passenger numbers would fall to roughly 1.25 million in January and they do not expect February and March numbers to exceed 500,000 passengers each.

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