Irish carrier Ryanair says it saw its traffic fall by 48% in March due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Statistics released by the airline show it still carried 5.7 million passengers.

Ryanair says it operated more than 33,000 scheduled flights last month.

This included a number of rescue and medical flights on behalf of various European Union governments.

But the carrier says that due to widespread EU flight bans and restrictions, it expects to carry "minimal if any traffic" during the months of April and May.

Earlier this week, Ryanair said over 90% of its aircraft are grounded for the coming weeks because of flight bans or other restrictions.

"We will comply with these restrictions at all times", it said.

"We are working with EU governments to try to keep some minimum flight links open for emergency reasons, even though the passenger loads on these flights will be very low."

It also extended a limited schedule up to Thursday April 9th for repatriation.

It added that all these aircraft are disinfected daily, with social distancing in place on-board.

These are to facilitate vital links to and from Ireland and to and from the UK.