Ryanair chief executive Michael O'Leary said demand for future bookings is 'terrible'
Ryanair today launched the first 'buy one, get one free' offer in the airline's 35-year history as it attempts to boost flagging passenger numbers.
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.
'We can't rule out job losses but in Ryanair we're certainly desperately working with our people to prevent them.'
Earlier today O'Leary warned that Britain risks losing hundreds of thousands of travel and tourism jobs in the coming months unless the government offers proper supports to workers and relaxes travel restrictions.
The CEO was speaking hours ahead of the announcement of new UK Covid support measures and weeks ahead of the launch of a European Union plan to coordinate travel restrictions in Europe.
Failure join the EU plan and provide a proper furlough scheme to pay those whose work has dried up due to the pandemic 'will mean literally hundreds of thousands of job losses this winter,' O'Leary told Sky News in an interview.
The EU travel scheme, due to be finalised in mid-October, would set out common travel rules across the continent and impose restrictions on regions with high infection rates rather than countries.
O'Leary, who earlier this month described the winter as a 'write-off', said Ryanair's forward bookings for November and December are around 10%, around a quarter of the normal level for this time of year.
Ryanair announced earlier this month that they would reduce its flight capacity by 40%
