Ryanair has announced that it will shut its bases in Cork and Shannon for the winter.
The airline also said it is cutting its winter capacity to 40% of what it was last year.
In a statement CEO of Ryanair Michael O’ Leary said: “While we deeply regret these winter schedule cuts they have been forced upon us by Government mismanagement of EU air travel.”
“Our focus continues to be on maintaining as large a schedule as we can sensibly operate to keep our aircraft, our pilots and our cabin crew current and employed while minimising job losses,” he said.
“It is inevitable, given the scale of these cutbacks, that we will be implementing more unpaid leave, and job sharing this winter in those bases where we have agreed reduced working time and pay, but this is a better short term outcome than mass job losses,” he added.