LONDON -- Budget airline Ryanair (RYAAY.O) is reducing its fleet and cancelling thousands of more flights as it struggles to overcome a pilot scheduling crisis.

The Irish carrier says 34 routes will be suspended from November to March 2018, affecting some 400,000 customers who have already booked flights. The routes include London Stansted to Edinburgh and Glasgow, Gatwick to Belfast, Newcastle to Faro, and Glasgow to Las Palmas.

The company also says it has scrapped plans to bid for bankrupt Italian airline Alitalia to focus on addressing its own problems.

Ryanair, a Dublin-based no-frills airline that is Europe's biggest carrier by number of passengers, previously said it would cancel 2,100 flights through October because it "messed up" the allocation of annual leave as it shifts to a new scheduling system.