RYAAY Ryanair Holdings PLC

   By Ian Walker 
 

Ryanair Holdings PLC said Monday that it was cutting more Italian flights in response to the government lockdown, as well as a number of flights to other E.U countries.

The budget airline, which has already cut 25% of flights to the country, said it was also restricting flights to and from northern Italy. In addition, Ryanair is reducing flights to Slovakia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Malta and Romania. All cuts are with immediate effect.

Last week, Ryanair, along with many other major airlines, cut flights to Italy in response to the growing coronavirus epidemic. On Sunday, the Italian government quarantined nearly 17 million people in the northern part of the country in a bid to contain the spread of the epidemic.

Ryanair said on March 2 that flights were being reduced between March 17 and April 8 to northern Italy and other countries where it has already noticed reduced bookings.

Ryanair said at the time that it didn't expect the cancellations to have a material hit on guidance for the current year ending in March, but cautioned that it was "far too early to speculate" what the impact will be on earnings in fiscal 2021.

Write to Ian Walker at ian.walker@wsj.com; @IanWalk40289749

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 09, 2020 11:44 ET (15:44 GMT)

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