Ryanair slashes Stansted flights by a third

Ryanair is cutting flights from Stansted airport by 30 per cent this winter.

The airline, which is blaming high airport taxes and charges for the move, says the cutbacks will see passengers fall by 2.5 million at the airport between October and March 2010.

The reductions will see the number of aircraft operating out of Stansted drop from 40 this summer to 24 over the winter.

Ryanair made a similar move last winter, reducing its aircraft at Stansted by 25 per cent to 28 aircraft – representing a drop in 900,000 passengers a week.

Stansted owners BAA downplayed the news. In a statement the airport operator said: "Last winter Ryanair reduced its aircraft fleet here to 28, this year it will be 24. It is common practice for them to reduce frequency to various destinations during the winter season as they have done in previous years."

Ryanair says the aircraft being withdrawn from Stansted will be redeployed to other airports across Europe.

This contrasts with the statement made by Ryanair’s chief executive Michael O’Leary last year – at the time of the announcement about winter 2008/2009 cuts, he said the carrier would “lose less money this winter by sitting these eight aircraft on the ground, rather than flying them at an expensive airport like BAA Stansted”.

This year he says the aircraft will operate out of airports in countries such as Belgium, the Netherlands, Greece and Spain, where tourism taxes and/or airport charges have been reduced or withdrawn completely.