Ryanair adds new London Stansted routes after extending limited flight schedule

RYANAIR has grounded nearly all of its planes - but the airline is still operating on a small handful of routes until the end of the month.

The flights are mainly operating between the UK and Ireland, but it is also flying between London and Berlin, Lisbon, Budapest and Eindhoven.

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The airline has cancelled 99 per cent of their planes with the remaining aircraft used to provide repatriation and rescue flights for various EU Governments.

The limited schedule was to last from March 27 to April to April 30, and they have since extended this with additional London Stansted routes to Porto, Sofia and Bucharest.

The latest statement from the company said: "As most EU countries have imposed flight bans or other restrictions, over 99 per cent of Ryanair’s aircraft are grounded for the coming weeks.

"We are working with EU Governments to try to keep some minimum flight links open for emergency reasons, even though the passenger loads on these flights is very low.

"We are extending this limited schedule to Thurs 28 May."

They added: "With low loads, social distancing will be optimised on-board and we ask all passengers to cooperate fully with our crews who are doing their best in difficult times to maintain vital links to/from Ireland and to/from the UK to facilitate our passengers and their families to deal with emergencies that may require urgent travel over the coming days and weeks.

"Ryanair apologises sincerely for the unprecedented grounding of our aircraft fleet, and any schedule disruptions this may have caused, but we must all work together with EU Governments to minimise the impact of Covid-19 on our citizens and our health services."

Ryanair will operate daily or weekly flights on the following routes:

The airline previously said it isn't expecting to operate flights in either May or June - starting up again in July at the earliest.

Ryanair said in a statement: "The Ryanair Airlines will shortly notify their trade unions about its restructuring and job loss programme, which will commence from July 2020.

"These plans will be subject to consultation but will affect all Ryanair Airlines and may result in the loss of up to 3,000 mainly pilot and cabin crew jobs, unpaid leave and pay cuts of up to 20 per cent, and the closure of a number of aircraft bases across Europe until traffic recovers.

"Job cuts and pay cuts will also be extended to head office and back office teams."

Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary has warned the low-budget carrier won’t fly if it is required to keep the middle seat empty, something other airlines are considering.

The airline chief said he expected 80 per cent of the carrier’s schedule to resume by September if flights in Europe started again in early July - but only if it was allowed to use all of the seats on its planes.

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Ryanair passengers have claimed they are being refused refunds for their cancelled flights until the coronavirus crisis is over.

Customers are being sent e-mails advising that anyone requesting a cash refund will be put in a queue until the pandemic has stopped.

The low-cost airline will not be processing refunds until "the Covid-19 crisis has abated".

The airline explained: "As our payment agents are required to stay at home in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic, payment security restrictions prevent us from processing cash refunds."

Passengers are being urged to accept vouchers instead - if not, they will be placed in a "cash refund queue" until the pandemic has passed.

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Airlines such as Wizz Air has resumed their limited flight schedule to Europe, while British Airways hopes to restart by July.

The flag carrier will only resume 50 per cent of their flights, and warn passenger capacity may not return to normal levels until 2023.