Irish budget airline Ryanair has said they will be reducing flights and increasing prices to some European holiday destinations ahead of the UK summer holiday season.

Ryanair was forced to review its summer 2020 schedule following a delay in the delivery of Boeing 737 MAX planes.

The shortfall in MAX planes has led to the airline closing bases in Stockholm and Nuremberg as well as several others in different parts of Europe.

Other closures are expected to take place before the summer holiday rush but Ryanair has not yet confirmed which locations will suffer.

Daily Star Online revealed in December that the airline plans to up prices in 2020 despite the reduction in routes as it no longer has to "lower fares to sell seats."

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  Ryanair could hike 2020 prices after Thomas Cook collapse due to 'less competition'

The airline said a hike may occur as a result of two things – weaker airlines going bust and the wait for 200 re-certified Boeing 737 MAX planes.

It attributed their budget-friendly price point during the last few years to “over capacity” in Europe and claimed they had to "drop fares to sell seats."

But following the collapse of British Travel Group Thomas Cook , Ryanair said it has "less competition" so "fares could go up."

In December a Ryanair spokesman told Daily Star Online: "Fares were low in the last few years because there were more seats than people – so there was an over capacity in Europe.

"We had to drop the fares to sell the seats – but the moment we have less capacity, fares could go up.

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  Ryanair won’t tell customers if they’re flying on Boeing 737 MAX 'death planes'

Since the closure of the European bases Ryanair DAC CEO Eddie Wilson Daily Star Online: "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 had initially hoped to add 10 re-certified Boeing 737 MAX planes to its fleet early 2020.

• Ryanair

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