Ryanair (FR, Dublin International) has taken the decision to close two of its bases, at Nuremberg and Stockholm Skavsta airports, which, it said in a statement, is as a result of delays in the delivery of its B737-8-200s. In addition, the ultra-low-cost carrier's (ULCC) plans to reduce capacity on some of its routes over the Summer 2020 season.

Ryanair has again revised next summer's schedule based on receiving just ten B737 MAX 8s rather than the 20 as previously planned. As a result, expected traffic growth for FY2021 (year ending March 31, 2021) is cut from 157 million passengers to 156 million.

Ryanair DAC Chief Executive Officer Eddie Wilson said of the base closures: "We regret these two further base closures and minor capacity cuts at other bases which are solely due to further delivery delays to our Boeing MAX aircraft."

"We are continuing to work with Boeing, our people, our unions and our affected airports to minimise these capacity cuts and job losses."

The airline's base at Skavsta currently accommodates four aircraft, and is set to close at the end of March 2020. According to the ch-aviation schedules module, in the previous summer season, Ryanair offered 33 routes from the Swedish airport. During the present winter season, the network is smaller with just 20 destinations on offer.

"They will continue to fly from Skavsta but close the base," says Lena Josefsson, Marketing Manager at Skavsta Airport to local newspaper Aftonbladet. "We know that there will probably be fewer departures and to fewer destinations than we had before."

"They have said that the base will be temporarily closed, we hope it will resume here in the future when they receive the deliveries of new aircraft," added Josefsson.

The news to close its Nuremberg base from next April, which consists of two aircraft and was opened three years ago, follows closely behind the decision in October to shut its base in Hamburg Helmut Schmidt. Up to 120 employees at Nuremberg airport are likely to be affected.

"This is a blow to the metropolitan region, because the route network of Ryanair is currently the backbone of the European direct connections of the Albrecht Dürer Airport Nuremberg," said Airport CEO Michael Hupe to the local NordBayern newspaper. He added that the airport will seek to fill the gaps in the flight plan.

Ryanair's current winter schedule at the German airport boasts 16 destinations, and includes routes to Athens, Budapest, Kyiv Boryspil, Rome Fiumicino and Tel Aviv Ben Gurion. In the recent Summer 2019 season, the ULCC offered 20 destinations from Nuremberg.

The closure does not mark the end of operations at Nuremberg, as about one-third of flights are expected to be maintained into the Summer 2020 season.

According to Reuters, Ryanair launched a bid in Ireland’s High Court on December 3 to prevent former Chief Operations Officer (COO) Peter Bellew from joining easyJet (London Luton) until 2021.

The airline's senior counsel Martin Hayden told the court: "Mr Bellew has all of this information ... in his head, and it would be of immense benefit to a rival.” He added that the information would be far less relevant in a year’s time and that Bellew had signed a non-compete clause, a claim which the former CCO denies.

Bellew resigned in July, with Ryanair saying that he would step down at the end of 2019. However, just a week later easyJet announced Bellew's appointment as its new CCO, resulting in the Irish ULCC filing legal proceedings to delay the move.