Budget airline Ryanair is axing 12 routes and cutting 400 jobs on rival carrier Buzz, which it is taking over on April 1.

Ryanair also confirmed it was grounding all Buzz flights "for the month of April 2003, at least".

The Irish low-cost airline added a final decision would follow soon "on whether to restart Buzz flying on May 1 or close Buzz altogether".

Ryanair said the financial position of Buzz, which is owned by Dutch airline KLM and which is being bought for £15 million, was "extremely precarious".

It was losing more than £690,000 a week, it had inappropriate planes, a poor schedule and its fares were too high.

The Buzz routes to be terminated are Paris Charles de Gaulle, Amsterdam, Marseilles, Toulon, Tours, Bergerac, Caen, Dijon, Geneva, Chambery, Brest and Almeira.

Ryanair said passengers who had booked on flights after April 1 would be offered a full refund.

Passengers would then be able to rebook with new tickets, at lower prices, from March 12 to existing or alternative destinations.

The Irish airline also said the redundancies would include about 25 per cent of Buzz's pilots, up to 80 per cent of its cabin crew, all cargo and group sales staff and about half of Buzz's ground operations staff at Stansted airport in Essex.

Ryanair said there would be increased frequencies on Buzz's 12 remaining routes, on which fares would be 50 per cent lower.

These routes include Frankfurt, Berlin and Bordeaux.

Buzz's fleet will be reduced from 12 to eight aircraft, while there will be increased pay and productivity allowances for Buzz's remaining 200 staff.

Ryanair said Buzz management would be briefing all staff this week.