Ryanair and British Airways scrap hundreds of flights due to coronavirus – putting Brits’ holidays in jeopardy
BRITISH AIRWAYS and Ryanair have announced plans to axe hundreds of flights due to coronavirus, affected tens of thousands of holidaymakers. Ryanair is cancelling up to 25 per cent of its Italian short haul flights between March 17 and April 8, because the virus has affected northern Italy particularly badly.
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According to the company, they have received a significant drop in bookings over that late March/early April period and there had been an increasing number of passenger no-shows on flights, particularly from and within Italy.
Meanwhile, BA - who had already - has scrapped more than 200 flights between March 16 - 28.
These include 12 transatlantic flights from London Heathrow to New York, as well as 171 short-haul roundtrip flights from Heathrow to countries including Italy, France, Austria, Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Switzerland.
They are also cancelling seven roundtrip flights from London Gatwick to Italy, France and Albania and 26 roundtrip flights from London City to Germany and Italy.
Customers on BA's cancelled services will be offered the option of a full refund, rebook to a later date or rebook on other carriers where possible.
Ryanair's CEO Michael O'Leary said of their cancellations: "Our focus at this time is on minimising any risk to our people and our passengers.
"While we are heavily booked over the next two weeks, there has been a notable drop in forward bookings towards the end of March into early April.
"It makes sense to selectively prune our schedule to and from those airports where travel has been most affected by the Covid-19 outbreak.
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"This is a time for calm. We will make sensible cuts to our schedules over the comings weeks to reflect weaker bookings, and changing travel patterns.
"All affected customers will be advised of any schedule changes at least 14 days in advance.
"We will continue to comply fully with guidelines from National Governments, the WHO and EASA as they are updated on a regular basis."
Any passengers affected by the cancellations will be contacted by email today and the airline is also allocating annual leave and/or unpaid leave to pilots and cabin crew.
The scrapped flights follow previous cancellations by British Airways, easyJet and Wizz Air over the last ten days.
On Friday, easyJet also announced that it was cancelling some flights in and out of Italy due to a softening of demand thanks to the virus.
Affected passengers will be contacted and put on alternative flights, or issued full refunds.
The UK government has advised against "all but essential travel" to 10 towns in the north of Italy, primarily in the Lombardy region.
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More than 1,600 people are now infected in the country and 34 people have been killed.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock told BBC Breakfast that tourists who have travelled to the regions mentioned in the FCO advice already should "self-isolate whether or not they have symptoms".
Images of Milan show the city almost deserted with tourists cancelling hotels and flights to Italy amid fears of the virus.