6-K
1
a1300c.htm
RYANAIR TO CUT WINTER CAPACITY FROM 60% TO 40%
a1300c
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 October 2020
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 TO CUT WINTER CAPACITY FROM 60% TO 40% OF PRIOR
YEAR
CORK, SHANNON, TOULOUSE BASES TO CLOSE FOR WINTER AS FY TRAFFIC
GUIDANCE REDUCED TO 38M
Ryanair, Europe's largest airline, today (Thurs
15th Oct)
released its revised winter schedule. Due to increased flight
restrictions imposed by EU Govts, air travel to/from much of
Central Europe, the UK, Ireland, Austria, Belgium and Portugal have
been heavily curtailed. This has caused forward bookings to weaken
slightly in Oct, but materially in Nov &
Dec.
In light of these weaker bookings, and Ryanair's plan to operate
with a 70% load factors, Ryanair has today further reduced its
winter schedule (Nov - Mar) taking capacity down from 60% to 40% of
prior year. Ryanair expects to maintain up to 65% of its winter
route network, but with reduced frequencies. In addition to the
winter closure of bases in Cork, Shannon, and Toulouse, Ryanair has
announced significant base aircraft cuts in Belgium, Germany,
Spain, Portugal and Vienna.
With this greatly reduced winter capacity and load factors of
approx. 70%, Ryanair now expects full year (FY21) traffic to fall
to approx. 38m guests, although this guidance could be further
revised downwards if EU Govts continue to mismanage air travel and
impose more lockdowns this winter.
Ryanair's Group CEO Michael O'Leary said:
"We have continued to flex our capacity in Sept & Oct to
reflect both market conditions and changing Government
restrictions, with the objective of sustaining a 70% load factor,
which allows us operate as close to breakeven as possible and
minimise cash burn. While the Covid situation remains fluid and
hard to predict, we must now cut our full year traffic forecast to
38m guests.
While we deeply regret these winter schedule cuts they have been
forced upon us by Government mismanagement of EU air travel. Our
focus continues to be on maintaining as large a schedule as we can
sensibly operate to keep our aircraft, our pilots and our cabin
crew current and employed while minimising job losses. It is
inevitable, given the scale of these cutbacks, that we will be
implementing more unpaid leave, and job sharing this winter
in those bases where we have agreed reduced working time and pay,
but this is a better short term outcome than mass job losses. There
will regrettably be more redundancies at those small number of
cabin crew bases, where we have still not secured agreement on
working time and pay cuts, which is the only alternative. We
continue to actively manage our cost base to be prepared for the
inevitable rebound and recovery of short haul air travel in Europe
once an effective Covid-19 vaccine is developed.
In the meantime, we urge all EU Governments to immediately, and
fully, adopt the EU Commission's Traffic Light System, which allows
for safe air travel between EU states on a regional basis to
continue (without defective travel restrictions) for those
countries and regions of Europe, who are able to demonstrate that
their Covid case rates are less than 50 per 100,000
population."
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.
