Ryanair said today that it will have to trim back its flight schedule for the first three months of 2006 because of the late delivery of new aircraft from Boeing, which was affected by a strike earlier this year.
The airline said the cancellations would reduce its passenger traffic by around 100,000 passengers a month and would cut overall traffic in the current fiscal year to just under 35 million customers.
Ryanair said that as a result of a strike in Boeing in September and October, all of the airline's aircraft deliveries this winter are being made about one month behind schedule. It said it has been able to meet this four plane shortfall during October, November and December by extending the flying programme on a number of older 737-200 series planes due for retirement,
However, it said that it is not possible to extend the use of these planes beyond the end of December as they have been sold and the pilots retrained on the new 737-800s.
This means that 200 return flights will be cancelled per month, or about 1% of the total flying programme during January, February and March. The launch of the second aircraft at Ryanair's Nottingham East Midlands base will be delayed from March 7 to April 5 and the launch of its second plane at the Pisa base will delayed from January 12 to April 4.
Ryanair said that all passengers currently affected by the cancelled flights or the delay in flights will be notified at least three weeks in advance and will be offered either an alternative Ryanair flight, or a full refund of their air fares.
Michael Cawley, Ryanair's Deputy CEO, said the schedule changes will not effect Ryanair's profit guidance for the fiscal year ending March 2006.
Ryanair shares were up nine cent to €7.90 in Dublin this evening.
