Ryanair cuts back on its Stansted winter flights
NO frills airline Ryanair yesterday announced a 40 per cent capacity cutback in its winter flights out of Stansted, blaming the government’s Air Passenger Duty and the airport’s passenger fees.
The cut comes at a bad time for BAA, which has been forced to sell the airport along with Gatwick and one of its Scottish airports.
Ryanair operated 40 aircraft from Stansted this summer but will reduce this to 24 aircraft this winter with a loss of 2.5m passengers.
Ryanair said it was increasing capacity at other European bases where governments were reducing taxes and passenger fees.
Observers said, however, that Ryanair’s winter traffic out of Stansted would be broadly similar to last year despite the bluster from the airline’s boss Michael O’Leary.
BAA is appealing the sale of its airports and is having trouble attracting bidders at an attractive price.