Ryanair cuts Sept, Oct capacity by 20% on weak bookings

[August 17, 2020]  DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ryanair <RYA.I> will reduce its flight capacity by 20% during September and October after a reimposition of some coronavirus restrictions led to a notable weakness in forward bookings over the last 10 days, the Irish airline said on Monday.

Europe's biggest budget airline, which increased flights to 60% of its normal schedule this month after resuming services in July, said the cuts will be heavily focused on France, Ireland, Spain and Sweden and mostly involve frequency reductions rather than route closures.

"Over the past two weeks as a number of EU countries have raised travel restrictions, forward bookings especially for business travel into September and October have been negatively affected," a Ryanair spokesman said in a statement, adding that impacted passengers will be advised of their options.

(Reporting by Padraic Halpin; editing by Jason Neely)

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