Irish carrier Ryanair has announced it will fly limited services to repatriate people across Ireland and the UK.

It is also offering aircraft for emergency medical flights, including to and from China.

Ryanair says: "Our pilots, engineers and other airline professionals will keep trying to assist EU governments where we can through this COVID-19 crisis."

However it says as most EU countries have imposed flight bans or other restrictions, over 90% of its aircraft will be grounded "for the coming weeks."

But the company adds: "We are all working with EU governments to try to keep some minimum flight links open for emergency reasons, even though the passenger loads on these flights will be very low."

From Friday March 27th until Thursday April 2nd, Ryanair says it will operate daily or weekly flights on specific routes.

For emergency travel and essential island connectivity, we’re keeping the following routes open over the coming week on a limited schedule 👇

— Ryanair (@Ryanair) March 26, 2020

The airline says all these aircraft are disinfected daily, with low loads social distancing to be optimised on-board.

"We ask all passengers to cooperate fully with our crews who are doing their best in difficult times to maintain vital links to/from Ireland and to/from the UK to facilitate our passengers and their families to deal with emergencies that may require urgent travel over the coming days and weeks."

Ryanair has apologised for the unprecedented grounding of its aircraft fleet and any schedule disruptions this may have caused.