AER LINGUS has decided to cancel a number of flights in and out of Irish airports in the run up to Christmas, leaving would-be home-comers out in the cold.
With Christmas just six weeks away, the airline has decided to reduce the amount of domestic and international flights it will be running, as the Irish government continues to dither on any decision regarding Christmas travel.
Ireland is currently in lockdown, and will remain there until December 1, but it's too early to say what restrictions will be in place come Christmas.
As such, Aer Lingus have decided not to take the risk.
According to Extra.ie, the airline had been forced to cancel a number of flights due to "a lack of demand".
A spokesperson said: "Due to the current lack of demand for air travel, Aer Lingus has had to cancel services to/from a number of airports across mainland Europe. Impacted customers are being contacted directly and offered a full refund or a voucher for future travel with Aer Lingus.
"Aer Lingus has taken this early action to allow our customers time to make alternative arrangements for Christmas travel.
"Aer Lingus wishes to apologise for the inconvenience caused by these cancellations which are a direct result of the absence of demand for air travel.
"Aer Lingus is hopeful that the implementation of the traffic light system for travel across Europe and the booking flexibility available now with Aer Lingus will help to encourage greater demand for international travel in 2021."
A number of people took to Twitter to complain that their flights into Shannon or Knock Airports had been redirected to Dublin, while others complained that their flights from London had simply been cancelled altogether.
The airline defended the cancellations and re-routing, tweeting: "Any flight cancellation is due to operational reasons as a result of the air travel restrictions and uncertainty surrounding air travel.
"Flights aren't cancelled haphazardly."
