Ryanair cuts 5.7 million winter seats as easyJet and Volotea reduce flights

Disruption overview

Winter flight options are shrinking across Europe, with Ryanair removing about 5.7 million planned seats, easyJet cutting about 1.1 million, and Loganair reducing capacity by 15.9%. Volotea is also canceling around 700 flights between October and spring, affecting nearly 100,000 passengers, with Bordeaux, Brest, and Lyon among its hardest-hit bases. Higher fuel costs and weaker demand are driving the changes, which affect airports including London Gatwick and Milan Malpensa rather than a single operational incident. If your booking is canceled, refund and rebooking rights still apply on covered EU and UK flights, although compensation generally isn't payable when you receive more than 14 days' notice.

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Disruption details

Ryanair has removed about 5.7 million seats from its winter schedule as airlines across Europe reduce planned flying. easyJet, Loganair, and Volotea are also cutting capacity, with changes affecting airports including London Gatwick Airport, Milan Malpensa Airport, and Bordeaux–Mérignac Airport.

For passengers, these changes can mean having to rearrange a winter trip or choose between another flight and a refund. If you're affected, the important distinction is that these are advance schedule reductions—not a sudden airport closure or air traffic disruption.

OAG schedule data comparing airline filings from 7 September and 18 October shows that 21 airlines reduced their planned winter capacity by more than 5%. These figures measure changes to scheduled seats, rather than the number of passengers whose bookings have been canceled.

The main reductions include:

• Ryanair has made the largest cut by seat numbers, removing about 5.7 million seats, or 7.5% of its planned winter capacity.

• easyJet has reduced its winter schedule by about 1.1 million seats.

• Loganair has lowered planned capacity by 15.9%.

• Volotea's reduction is around 9% in OAG's figures, while other estimates put it at 10–11%.

Volotea is canceling around 700 flights between October and spring, affecting nearly 100,000 passengers. That flight and passenger total relates to Volotea, not the combined reductions across all airlines.

Other airlines reducing schedules include Corendon Airlines, Smartwings, Georgian Airways, LOT Polish Airlines, TUI Airways, airBaltic, and SAS Scandinavian Airlines.

easyJet's largest reductions are at London Gatwick Airport, Milan Malpensa Airport, London Luton Airport, Edinburgh Airport, and Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport. Bristol Airport, Belfast International Airport, Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, Geneva Airport, and Manchester Airport are also among the most affected.

Routes with some of easyJet's biggest cuts include Naples–Luxembourg, London Southend–Palma, Zurich–Naples, and Southend–Berlin. However, the airline is also adding capacity on selected services, including Southampton–Manchester and routes to Finland.

Volotea's hardest-hit bases include Bordeaux–Mérignac Airport, Brest Bretagne Airport, and Lyon–Saint-Exupéry Airport. Its Bordeaux capacity is down about 35%, and some winter routes to Tenerife and Lanzarote have been removed.

Higher jet fuel prices linked to the Middle East conflict and weaker consumer demand are behind the reductions. Ryanair's chief executive says the airline is keeping winter capacity flat rather than growing while buying oil outside its price-protection arrangements at around $170 a barrel. He has also warned that fares could rise by 10–20% next year.

easyJet says it's adjusting its schedule to match demand. It announced changes early to avoid having to move passengers onto alternative flights later. Volotea expects higher fuel costs to add about €150 million to its 2026 bill.

Airlines usually contact affected passengers individually. If your flight is canceled, you should normally be offered a choice between a refund and an alternative journey. Volotea says it's paying refunds within 7 days and assessing requests to cover alternative travel costs individually.

Compensation generally isn't payable under EC 261 or UK 261 when you're told about a cancellation more than 14 days before departure. That's the key issue with these advance schedule cuts, rather than whether they happened on the day of travel.

That doesn't mean you're without support. For covered EU and UK flights, refund and rebooking rights still apply, and care and assistance may be available if you're left waiting during a disrupted journey. Your exact rights depend on your flight, the notice you received, and your circumstances. You can use AirHelp's free flight checker if you'd like to check whether compensation could apply to your booking.

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Information on this page is AI generated, but always checked by a (human) passenger right expert.