In September, the low-cost carrier had already cut capacity by 20% and announced plans to fly only 40% of flights in October compared to the same time period in 2019. 

On Thursday, Ryanair announced that due to the recent surge of covid-19 infections across Europe it was forced to further slowdown activity to and from major European countries, including Belgium, Austria, Portugal and Ireland, during the winter season (November-March). At the same time the airline also decided to close bases in Cork, Shannon and Toulouse during this period.

‘’While we deeply regret these winter schedule cuts they have been forced upon us by Government mismanagement of EU air travel,’’ CEO Michael O’Leary said in the Thursday press statement.

This is only the latest of a string of measures the airline has taken in light of the global health crisis. Back in May Ryanair already warned of up to 3,000 job cuts resulting from the drastic decrease in demand. During the summer, news also surfaced that the airline would give up its base at Frankfurt-Hahn Airport after pilots refused to accept pay cuts. 

Given the unpredictability of the covid-19 crisis and its impact on the global airline industry, job insecurity thus continues at Ryanair as O’Leary noted that ‘’ 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.’’