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Ryanair reduces Stansted flights | Ryanair reduces Stansted flights |
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Budget airline Ryanair has announced a significant reduction in its services at Stansted Airport. | Budget airline Ryanair has announced a significant reduction in its services at Stansted Airport. |
Ryanair will reduce the number of aircraft it runs at the airport by 40% in its winter schedule, and will cut the number of flights by 30%, it said. | Ryanair will reduce the number of aircraft it runs at the airport by 40% in its winter schedule, and will cut the number of flights by 30%, it said. |
The company said that Stansted was one of its most expensive bases, and added that an increase in air passenger duty tax was also a factor in its decision. | |
Ryanair also cut its Stansted fleet last winter, but by just 22%. | |
Ryanair said it expects the latest move will mean it carries 2.5 million fewer passengers between October and March. | |
The airline operated 40 aircraft from Stansted in the summer, but said this would fall to 24 this winter. | |
It said it would switch the 16 aircraft it was withdrawing from Stansted to other European bases. | It said it would switch the 16 aircraft it was withdrawing from Stansted to other European bases. |
Last winter, it reduced its capacity to 28 planes from 36 in the summer. | |
Tourist tax | |
In November, air passenger duty will increase from £10 to £11. | |
Ryanair said it had written to the prime minister, asking him to scrap "this damaging tourist tax", adding that several other European governments had done so in recent months. | |
Ryanair chief executive Michael O'Leary said that UK traffic and tourism was collapsing, although Ryanair continued to "grow traffic rapidly in those countries which welcome tourists instead of taxing them". | |
"Ryanair's 40% 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," he added. |