Number of passengers handled by Ryanair in April down 99.6 pct

Source: Xinhua | 2020-05-06

Europe's largest budget airline Ryanair on Tuesday said that it handled only about 40,000 passengers in April 2020, down 99.6 percent from the 13.5 million passengers it handled in the same month last year.

In the month, Ryanair operated 600 scheduled flights including a number of rescue and medical flights on behalf of the governments of the European Union (EU) members, said the airline in a statement.

The airline expects to carry minimal traffic during the months of May and June due to the flight bans and restrictions impose by the EU countries to stop the spread of COVID-19, it said.

Earlier last Friday, the Irish national radio and television broadcaster quoted Ryanair as saying that the airline's passenger demand won't return to normal within two years.

Such a situation could lead to a cut of up to 3,000 jobs within Ryanair and a 20-percent pay cut for its employees, warned the company.

Ryanair originally planned to carry 154 million passengers in the current fiscal year which will end on March 31, 2021. However, due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the airline has revised down its target to less than 100 million passengers, according to the report.

Headquartered in Ireland, Ryanair mainly provides short-haul flight services within Europe with daily operations of flights averaging 2,400 in normal times.