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Liverpool Echo
Liverpool Echo
World
Lottie Gibbons

Ryanair and British Airways cancel hundreds of flights over coronavirus fears

Ryanair and British Airways have cancelled hundreds of flights amid coronavirus fears.

The budget airline announced that it has reduced flights on certain routes, in particular to and from Italy, by up to 25%.

Ryanair said the cancellations are due to a drop in demand.

The change will affect departures from March 17 to April 8 and passengers will be notified by email.

A Ryanair plane takes off from Dublin Airport (Getty)

British Airways has also cancelled a large number of flights between Heathrow and New York's JFK airport, Italy, France, Austria, Belgium, Germany, Ireland and Switzerland.

It has also cancelled flights between Gatwick and Italy, France and Albania, as well as London City flights to and from Germany and Italy.

Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary said: "Our focus at this time is on minimising any risk to our people and our passengers.

"While we are heavily booked over the next two weeks, there has been a notable drop in forward bookings towards the end of March, into early April.

British Airways (Paul Norris)

"It makes sense to selectively prune our schedule to and from those airports where travel has been most affected by the Covid-19 outbreak."

A British Airways spokesman said: "To match reduced demand due to the continuing coronavirus issue, we are merging a number of flights between March 16 and March 28.

"We will be contacting customers on cancelled flights so we can discuss their travel options, including re-booking onto other carriers where possible, full refunds or booking with BA for a later date of travel.

"Customers can also find the latest information and options on BA.com."

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