May 18 (SeeNews) - Irish low-cost carrier Ryanair said on Monday its Austria-based subsidiary Lauda has abandoned a plan to operate a base in Croatia's coastal city of Zadar for Ryanair group.
"Due to Covid-19 restrictions, the Lauda fleet has been grounded since 17 March. With costs running ahead of other Group airlines and Lauda’s main competitor, Austrian Airlines, expected to receive an €800m State Aid bailout, Lauda has had to completely rethink its strategy and significantly lower its growth plans," Ryanair said in a financial statement.
In December 2019, Ryanair announced it will open a base in Zadar in the summer of 2020, to be operated by Lauda, and launch 11 new routes from there - to Aarhus, Bremen, Cork, Paris Beauvais, Gdansk, Kaunas, Liverpool, Maastricht, Riga, Toulouse, and Wroclaw.
However, in March the airline said it will postpone the planned opening of a summer base in Zadar until next year due to the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.
According to the initial plan, Ryanair ontended to deploy three aircraft in Zadar, an investment worth $300 million (277 million euro), and create 90 jobs within the company, as well as more than 500 jobs at the Zadar airport.
Founded in March 2018, Austrian low-fare carrier Lauda operates a fleet of 24 aircraft at four bases - Vienna, Stuttgart, Dusseldorf and Palma de Mallorca. It offered flights to over 90 destinations in 29 countries prior to the coronavirus crisis.
($ = 0.924856 euro)