LONDON – Ryanair has announced that it will be cutting its January 2022 capacity by 33% due to the Omicron variant disrupting air travel.

This is due to the ban on UK arrivals into France and Germany as well as the suspension of all EU flights to/from Morocco.

Passenger traffic guidance for the carrier has decreased from 10-11 million to between 9-9.5 million as a result of those bans.

However, with the January capacity cut, this will bring guidance down to between 6-7 million from the original figure of 10 million.

For full-year passenger guidance, it is understood that the figure is now going to be under 100 million passengers, in another blow for the airline.

In a statement, the airline said that it would revisit schedules next month:

“In light of the current uncertainty about the Omicron variant, and intra-Europe travel restrictions, no schedule cutbacks have yet been decided for February or March 2022.”

“These schedules will be revisited in January as more scientific information becomes available on the Omicron variant, its impact on hospitalizations, European population and/or travel restrictions in February or March.”

Net loss at the carrier is expected to rise as high as 450 million EUR, and as low as 250 million EUR, but the airline hopes to have more information on this by the Q3 results on January 31, 2022.