6-K
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a8444k.htm
RYANAIR CUTS FULL YEAR TRAFFIC FORECAST TO < 30M
a8444k
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549
FORM 6-K
Report of Foreign Private Issuer
Pursuant to Rule 13a-16 or 15d-16
of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934
For the
month of January
2021
RYANAIR HOLDINGS PLC
(Translation
of registrant's name into English)
c/o Ryanair Ltd Corporate Head Office
Dublin
Airport
County Dublin Ireland
(Address
of principal executive offices)
Indicate
by check mark whether the registrant files or will file
annual
reports
under cover Form 20-F or Form 40-F.
Form
20-F..X.. Form 40-F
Indicate
by check mark whether the registrant by furnishing the
information
contained
in this Form is also thereby furnishing the information to
the
Commission
pursuant to Rule 12g3-2(b) under the Securities
Exchange
Act of
1934.
Yes
No ..X..
If
"Yes" is marked, indicate below the file number assigned to the
registrant
in
connection with Rule 12g3-2(b): 82- ________
RYANAIR CUTS FULL YEAR (TO MAR 21) TRAFFIC FORECAST FROM "BELOW
35M" TO "BELOW 30M" AS NEW COVID LOCKDOWNS & TRAVEL
RESTRICTIONS ANNOUNCED BY IRISH & UK GOVTS
Ryanair, Europe's largest airline, today (Thurs
7th Jan)
briefed the markets that it now expects the newly announced Covid
lockdowns in Ireland, the UK, and a small number of other EU
countries this week, will materially reduce its flight schedules
and traffic forecast through Jan, Feb & Mar. Ryanair now
expects its Jan traffic to fall to under 1.25m passengers, and that
new Covid restrictions could also reduce Feb and Mar traffic to as
little as 500,000 passengers each month. In response, Ryanair will
significantly cut its flight schedules from Thurs 21 Jan, which
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. All customers affected by these
further flight cancellations and further travel restrictions will
receive emails advising them of their entitlements of free moves
and/or refunds later today.
These new cutbacks will reduce full year (FY March '21) traffic
forecast from currently "below 35m" to between 26m to 30m
passengers. 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.
Ryanair calls on the Irish and UK Governments to accelerate the
slow pace of vaccine rollouts, and in particular, calls on the
Irish Government to explain why Denmark, with a population of 5m,
has vaccinated 40,000 citizens by Wed 6th Jan,
whereas Ireland with a similar 5m pop., has vaccinated just 4,000,
a vaccination rate that is 10 times slower than that of
Denmark.
A Spokesperson for Ryanair said:
"The WHO have previously confirmed that Governments should do
everything possible to avoid brutal lockdowns, because lockdowns
"do not get rid of the virus". Ireland's Covid-19 travel
restrictions are already the most stringent in Europe, and so these
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.
NPHET (Ireland's Public Health Team),
which we believe has mismanaged many aspects of Ireland's Covid
response (face masks, test & trace, international travel, care
homes and meat factories), should now release a daily report of the
number of vaccines administered in Ireland, and explain why they
continue to run behind the vaccination rates of other similar sized
EU countries. Vaccinations rather than
lockdowns is the way out of this Covid-19 crisis, and the sooner
NPHET takes action to accelerate Ireland's vaccine rollout speed,
the better."
ENDS
For further info
please
contact:
Alejandra
Ruiz
Piaras
Kelly
Ryanair
DAC
Edelman Ireland
Tel: +353-1-9451799
Tel: +353-1-592 1330
press@ryanair.com
ryanair@edelman.com
SIGNATURES
Pursuant
to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the
Registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf
by the undersigned, hereunto duly authorized.
