Ryanair to suspend five routes from Sofia, one from Bucharest from Nov

By reducing the flying schedule, the company aims to eliminate all risk of further flight cancellations, roster all of the extra pilot leave necessary to comply with regulations and roster almost 40% of the annual pilot leave requirement for 2018 in the first quarter of 2018, Ryanair said in a statement on Wednesday.

The company will suspend the routes from Sofia to Castellon, Memmingen, Pisa, Stockholm, Venice, as well as the route from Bucharest to Palermo. The suspension affects a total of 34 European routes, including routes from Cologne, Hamburg, London, Newcastle, Edinburgh, Trapani, Chania and Thessaloniki.

Ryanair said earlier this month it is cancelling 2,124 flights between September 19 and October 28, including a total of 17 flights from Bucharest to Rome, Milan Bologna and from Sofia to London.

The company also said that it plans to grow more slowly (4% instead of 9%) this winter by flying 25 less aircraft (of its 400 fleet) from November.

"Slower growth this winter, will create lots of spare aircraft and crews which will allow us to manage the exceptional volumes of annual leave we committed to delivering in the 9 months to Dec 2017," the air carrier's chief executive, Michael O'Leary, said in the statement. "We will start a new 12 month leave period on the 1st of Jan 2018 in full compliance with EU regulations and the IAA’s requirements."