Irish no-frills airline Ryanair announced Friday it was cancelling 40 to 50 flights a day for the next six weeks in a bid to improve punctuality -- between 1,680 and 2,100 flights overall.

"By cancelling less than two percent of our flying programme over the next six weeks, until our winter schedule starts in early November, we can improve the operational resilience of our schedules and restore punctuality to our annualised target of 90 percent," Robin Kiely, head of communications at the airline, said in a statement.