OAG Travel News

Ryanair is to slash the number of planes it flies out from Stansted Airport, a move which the no-frills carrier claimed is in protest over "unfair" passenger taxes and airport charges.

The airline, which currently runs 40 aircraft from Stansted, its main London hub, will run just 24 planes from October which will lead to a 30 per cent reduction in the number of weekly flights.

It is traditional for airlines to reduce capacity in winter which, despite the popularity of skiing holidays, is less busy than the summer months.

Last year, Ryanair cut capacity at Stansted to 28 planes. On a comparable basis, the number of planes that Ryanair will run out of Stansted this winter will be reduced by 14 per cent.

The group would not say which routes will be affected. It estimates though that around 2,500 jobs will be lost in airport personnel and with companies serving the airport.

No Ryanair crew or cabin would be affected it said, as they would be transferred to other airports.

Ryanair said that the change, which it estimates will lead to a loss of 2.5 million passengers at Stansted between October and March, was a response to the Government's failure to scrap tourist taxes and introduce lower, more competitive fees at hubs controlled by BAA, the Spanish-owned group that controls Britain's major airports including Stansted, Heathrow and Gatwick.

Ryanair, which operates more than 100 routes from Stansted, is struggling with fierce competition and this month gave a grim forecast that profits in the second half of this year would be zero, or even negative.

The airline's load factor, the measure of the proportion of seats that it fills on its flights, fell 2 per cent last month.

Ryanair has continually blamed weakening demand for flights on higher taxes and airport charges along with rising interest rates and passenger frustration with security delays.

Michael O'Leary, the chief executive of Ryanair, said: "Sadly UK traffic and tourism continues to 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."

Last winter, in an attempt to cope with high costs and lower demand, the group parked fifteen aircraft at Stansted and five at Dublin.

The move led to 400 pilots and cabin crew being forced to take one week of unpaid leave.

BAA owns seven UK airports including Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted.

The airports operator is appealing an order from the Competition Commission that it should be broken up. The Commission ruled this year that BAA had to sell Gatwick, Stansted and one of either Glasgow or Edinburgh to inject more competition into the UK airport sector.

It said that BAA's monopoly control of airports around London and in Scotland was detrimental to both airlines and passengers.

Source: www.thetimesonline.co.uk report by Elizabeth Judge