Ryanair slashes capacity
Thursday, 17 Jul 2008 13:55
Ryanair has announced substantial capacity cuts for next winter at its London Stansted and Dublin bases, blaming high oil prices and airport charges.
Flights from Stansted airport will drop by 14 per cent and there will be schedule reductions of 12 per cent from Dublin from the winter 2008/09 schedule.
Only 28 aircraft will operate from Stansted, down by a quarter from the current 36.
Ryanair's Warsaw and Leeds bases will see even more severe cutbacks, with all scheduled flights from Warsaw airport being cancelled and flights from Leeds reduced by 31 per cent.
The low-cost carrier claims the Civil Aviation Authority in the UK and the Dublin Aviation Authority in Ireland have refused to control "unjustified" charges and cost increases at the airports.
Ryanair claims Dublin Airport recently increased charges for check-in desks by 50 per cent.