Ryanair, which operates flights from Bournemouth Airport, is to axe more than one in three of its flight routes this winter due to low demand amid coronavirus travel restrictions across Europe.

The budget airline announced that it will only maintain up to 65% of its route network between November and March.

It will close its bases in Cork and Shannon, both in Ireland, and Toulouse in France during the five-month period.

Routes that do survive will be served with a lower frequency of flights than normal.

Ryanair said its winter capacity will be just 40% of what it was 12 months earlier, compared with the 60% it previously planned.

It described demand for flights as “heavily curtailed” to and from the UK, Ireland, Austria, Belgium, Portugal and much of central Europe.

This has caused forward bookings to weaken “slightly” for travel this month and “materially” for flights in November and December.

The firm said it expects to fill 70% of seats on its planes.