Ryanair has said it is to close its bases in Cork and Shannon for the winter.

Ryanair has said it is to close its bases in Cork and Shannon for the winter.
The move comes as the airline cuts capacity over the winter season from 60% to 40% compared to last year.
Its base in Toulouse in France is also to close and there will also be significant base aircraft cuts in Belgium, Germany, Spain, Portugal and Vienna, it said in a statement.
The airline said due to increased flight restrictions imposed by governments across the EU, air travel to and from much of Central Europe, the UK, Ireland, Austria, Belgium and Portugal has been heavily curtailed. 
This has caused forward bookings to weaken slightly in October, but materially in November and December, it said.
“While we deeply regret these winter schedule cuts they have been forced upon us by Government mismanagement of EU air travel,” said Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary.
“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,” he said.
“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,” he added.
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The airline had warned a number of weeks ago that it may be forced to close the Shannon and Cork bases for the winter unless the Government took steps to open up air travel by immediately adopting a new EU traffic light style system that classifies countries based on the level of Covid-19 there.
Mr O’Leary said Ryanair continues to urge all EU governments to immediately and fully adopt the EU system.
The decision to close the bases in Shannon and Cork could impact more than 100 pilots and cabin crew directly employed by the airline, as well as many other staff employed by other companies that provide services.
Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, Ryanair serviced 23 destinations from Cork and 13 from Shannon.
The airline says it is also reducing its full-year traffic guidance to 38 million this year compared to 149 million last year and it warned this could fall further if travel restrictions stay in place.
Because of the weaker bookings, it now expects to operate with 70% load factors over the winter period which Mr O’Leary said would allow the company to operate as close to breakeven as possible and minimise cash burn.
“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,” Mr O’Leary warned.
“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.”
Earlier this week the EU agreed the new traffic light system which the Government has endorsed but has yet to adopt.
Ryanair’s move will revert the airport to the 1960s with just one or two flights a day and a continuing debt problem, according to Cork City Councillor Kieran McCarthy. 
Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, Mr McCarthy said that with a huge debt overhanging the airport, Ryanair’s move will likely cause it to lose flight slots and remain in financial difficulty.
He called on the Government to increase funding supports to the airport. 
Conor Healy, Cork Chamber CEO, said the decision from Ryanair puts Cork Airport on the ropes and will be devastating for the staff impacted directly and indirectly. 
“This announcement is hugely damaging for regional and national connectivity and raises very real concerns regarding the ability of Cork Airport to avoid closure without further direct financial support from government in addition to that announced and welcomed on Budget Day,” Mr Healy said.
He said that a firm commitment to EU travel standards and most importantly the ability to implement proactive travel testing without delay remains acute and essential.
Mr Healy noted that Cork Airport directly and indirectly supports 12,000 jobs in the region and generated over €900m for the Irish economy in 2019 and is a key driver of the Cork economy.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs said the Government decision not to remove restrictions on global travel are being done for the greater good, adding that he hopes Ryanair will re-open its bases at Shannon and Cork after the winter months.
Simon Coveney told Morning Ireland that the Government “cannot and will not open international travel in a global pandemic” but will move next week to implement a new EU-wide travel agreement. 
The Minister said that Ryanair’s decision is “really bad news” for Cork and Shannon airports, but he has been assured by the airline that it is a temporary decision and “if we can get back to normality is a very good chance” it will resume operations next year. 
Minister Coveney said that Ireland has signed up to a common EU travel system and will decide next Tuesday how Ireland will implement the new travel system in a safe manner. 
He said Ireland has to maintain international connectivity and will adopt a common threshold agreement which will see regions in countries categorised as green, orange or red depending on positivity levels or the number of positive tests per 100,000 over 14 days.
He said full details next week about the measures will be given next week.
Ryanair shares were lower in Dublin trade this morning.