Dublin, Sep 16 (IANS): Irish budget airline Ryanair will cancel 40 to 50 flights every day for the next six weeks in a bid to improve its punctuality, the media reported.

The airline announced the plan on Friday, saying that it was "unacceptable" that its punctuality had fallen below 80 per cent in the first half of September, BBC reported.

It also said it had to clear a backlog of staff leave by the end of the year.

The move could affect up to 285,000 passengers, who will be offered alternative flights or refunds.

Ryanair said that less than 2 per cent of its flights would be cancelled and the move would help it hit its annual punctuality target of 90 per cent.

Ryanair has advised customers that flights will be operating as scheduled unless passengers have received a cancellation email.

"By cancelling less than 2% 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 per cent," the BBC quoted Ryanair's Robin Kiely as saying.