Fears for low-cost flights as Ryanair slashes passenger numbers from Britain by 30%
Ryanair is cutting the number of flights it runs from the UK as demand for air travel slumps.
The no-frills airline said it would reduce the number of flights from Stansted by 30 per cent this winter, while 40 per cent fewer aircraft will operate from the Essex airport.The Irish airline will cut the number of aircraft at the airport from 40 this summer to 24 over the winter. It will move the 16 aircraft to other European bases.
Ryanair now expects to carry 2.5million fewer passengers from Stansted, between October this year and March next year. The move comes after its load factor - the measure of the proportion of seats that it fills on its flights - fell by 2 per cent last month.However, it blamed the latest cutback on 'unfair' passenger taxes alongside high charges imposed by airport operator BAA.
The airline said that in recent months the Belgian, Dutch, Greek and Spanish governments had scrapped tourist taxes or reduced airport charges to zero to stimulate tourism.At the same time, the British government is increasing passenger taxes from November. Ryanair chief executive Michael O'Leary said: 'Sadly, UK traffic and tourism continuesto collapse, while Ryanair continues to grow traffic rapidly in those countries which welcome tourists instead of taxing them.
'Ryanair's 40 per cent capacity cutback at London Stansted shows just how much Gordon Brown's £10 tourist tax and the BAA monopoly's high airport charges are damaging London and UK tourism and the British economy generally.'
The 'tourist tax' that Mr O'Leary is referring to is the planned increase in passenger duty on short-haul flights from £10 to £11 from November, rising to £55 for long journeys of more than 6,000 miles. The 'green' charges will rise dramatically from 2010, starting at £24 on short-haul and reaching £170 on the longest flights.Ryanair's cutback will be a blow to Stansted, which has been the airline's major base during the boom in low-cost flying over the past decade.