Ryanair, which in January agreed to buy Buzz from Dutch carrier KLM, also confirmed that all Buzz flights would be grounded "for the month of April 2003, at least".

Ryanair said the restructuring plans would be presented to staff and creditors over the next few days, after which a final decision would be taken on whether to restart some flights on 1 May or close the airline altogether.

Ryanair said Buzz's financial position was "extremely precarious", and that the airline was losing more than 1m euros (�683,000) a week.

Workforce slashed

Ryanair announced the cuts as part of what it called a "major restructuring" of the loss-making airline.

It blamed Buzz's spiralling struggles on "the imminent threat of war in Iraq, the downturn in European economies and increasing intense competition from other low fare airlines".

BUZZ ROUTES CANCELLED Charles de Gaulle Dijon Amsterdam Marseille Toulon Tours Bergerac Caen Geneva Chambery Brest Almeria

It said it would reduce the number of aircraft from 12 to eight - keeping six 737 planes and two BAe 146 carriers - and aim to halve the price of current Buzz flights.

The 400 job cuts also proposed represent two-thirds of Buzz's current workforce.

Ryanair said the move would mean redundancy for 20% of pilots, 80% of Buzz's current cabin crew and all its cargo and group sales staff.

Analysts were surprised by the extent of the job cuts.

"It's a lot sharper than the job cuts that had been originally expected, but they needed to take more radical surgery," said Shane Matthews, an analyst at NCB Stockbrokers.

Re-booking

Ryanair added that passengers booked on Buzz flights during April would be offered a full refund and then able to book new flights from 12 March.

The Buzz routes to be terminated include Paris Charles de Gaulle, Amsterdam and Almeria.

But Ryanair said it would keep services flying to Berlin and to the Spanish destinations Murcia and Jerez, previously thought to be at risk of closing.

However, the group also said that if no agreement could be reached with staff "then Buzz will be closed on April 1 2003".

The trade union representing cabin crew said it would meet with Buzz management on Thursday.