Ryanair announces free flights in bid to beat coronavirus dip

Customers who book a flight before midnight on Thursday for travel up to December 14 on selected routes will get a second ticket at no extra charge.

This comes days after the airline announced it will further reduce its operations due to coronavirus travel restrictions.

Its capacity in October will be 40% of 2019 levels, compared with the 50% it previously announced.

Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary said demand for future bookings is “terrible”.

He told Sky News: “Into November and December our forward bookings are running at around 10%, that’s about a quarter of where they would normally be at this time of the year.