Ryanair target Laudamotion dumps Zurich flights due to plane shortage

ZURICH (Reuters) - Laudamotion, the successor airline to the bankrupt Niki carrier in which Ryanair aims to take a majority stake, dropped six routes from Zurich from its summer schedule after failing to secure enough planes, a spokeswoman said on Sunday.

The Austrian carrier's flights would have connected Zurich's business capital with holiday destinations including Majorca, Ibiza, and the Canary Islands as well as in Greece, she said from Vienna.

"All customers ... will (be) ...informed about the cancellations and refunds," Laudamotion said in a statement. "We regret the cancellations from Zurich and apologise to our customers for the inconvenience."

The Laudamotion spokeswoman said a third-party leasing company had failed to guarantee the Airbus jets needed to service the routes, as had been previously agreed.

Other Laudamotion departures including from Basel, Switzerland, and from Germany and Austria are not impacted.

In March, as part of its expansion into German-speaking markets, Ryanair agreed to take an 24.9 percent stake in the Austrian carrier, founded by former Formula 1 champion Niki Lauda.

The Irish airline planned to raise that to 75 percent as soon as possible, subject to regulatory approval.

Ryanair declined to comment on Zurich cancellations.

(Reporting by John Miller; editing by John Stonestreet)