Ryanair's chief executive has said he and the rest of the airline's employees will take a 50% pay cut for the months of April and May as a result of disruption to the business because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Michael O'Leary also said the airline has the cash to survive for "maybe even 12 months" with no flights or revenue as the coronavirus shuts the air travel industry down.

Speaking to the Financial Times, Mr O'Leary said he was working on a best-case scenario of two-three months in which flights would be grounded and revenues would vanish, but said "honestly none of us have any idea."

"The priority here for us as a company is how do we preserve as much cash so that if we have to operate for three, six, nine, maybe even 12 months, with no flights and no revenues how do we survive that, do we have the cash to survive that and we believe we do," O'Leary was quoted as saying.

Ryanair had cash and cash equivalents of over €4bn as of March 12, the newspaper quoted Mr O'Leary as saying.

In addition, the group has undrawn credit lines and nearly 300 aircraft that it owns with a current value of about $8-$10bn, Mr O'Leary was quoted as saying, adding that he did not expect the airline to have to draw on the credit lines for the moment.