HUNDREDS of Ryanair flights will not take off as planned today (Friday) due to pilot strikes in five countries.

Staff in Ireland, Germany, Sweden, Belgium and the Netherlands are staging a 24-hour walkout over pay and conditions.

Around 250 flights have been cancelled as a result, forcing passengers who planned to travel on Friday to rebook or take different routes.

The Irish budget airline said the strikes were “regrettable and unjustified” and called for unions to come back to the negotiating table.

Despite the walkouts, 85 per cent of its scheduled flights, more than 2,000, will operate as normal, Ryanair said.

“Ryanair took every step to minimise the disruption and we notified our customers as early as possible advising them of their free move, refund or reroute options,” the carrier said.

“The majority of customers have already been accommodated on another Ryanair flight.

“We want to again apologise to customers affected by this unnecessary disruption and we ask the striking unions to continue negotiations instead of calling anymore unjustified strikes.”