By Bev Fearis, published 15/05/20

Ryanair has made a bold announcement that it will return to 40% of its normal flight schedules from July 1, flying from most of its 80 European bases.

It says the move will be subject to government restrictions being lifted and effective public health measures being put in place at airports, adding: “It’s time to get Europe flying again.”

The proposed routes, frequencies, flight times and promotional prices are now listed on its website.

Ryanair also released a video outlining new measures, which include temperature checks at airport entry and wearing face masks or coverings at all times in the terminal and on board.

Passengers will also have to take fewer checked bags, check in online and download boarding pass to their smart phone.

On board, masked Ryanair cabin crew will offer a limited inflight service of pre-packaged snacks and drinks, but won’t accept cash sales.

Passengers won’t be allowed to queue for toilets and instead will need to request toilet access.

Ryanair will also require all passengers flying in July and August to fill in details, at the point of check-in, about the length of their planned visit and their address while visiting another EU country.

It said this contact information would be provided to EU governments to help them monitor any quarantine regulations they require of visitors on intra-EU flights.

CEO Eddie Wilson said: “It is important for our customers and our people that we return to some normal schedules from July 1 onwards. Governments around Europe have implemented a four-month lockdown to limit the spread of the COVID-19 virus.

“Ryanair will work closely with public health authorities to ensure that these flights comply, where possible, with effective measures to limit the spread of COVID-19. As already shown in Asia, temperature checks and face masks/coverings are the most effective way to achieve this on short haul (one hour) within Europe’s single market.

“Now that European countries are allowing some gradual return to normal life, we expect this will evolve over the coming weeks and months,” added Wilson.

“With more than six weeks to go to July 1, Ryanair believes this is the most practical date to resume normal flight schedules, so that we can allow friends and families to reunite, commuters to go back to work, and allow those tourism based economies such as Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, France and others, to recover what is left of this year’s tourism season.”