Ryanair cuts flights in row over tourist tax

Budget airline Ryanair is to slash its flights by almost a fifth. It will carry two million fewer passengers this winter.

The cutbacks include a 17 per cent reduction in services at Stansted airport, where the Irish no-frills carrier will be handling 1.5 million fewer passengers than last winter.

Ryanair will also cut winter flights at most of its other UK bases, except Edinburgh and Leeds Bradford.

Ryanair chief executive Michael O'Leary cited the "damaging" Air Passenger Duty airport departure tax as a reason for the reduction.

Ryanair said today that it would switch London-based aircraft "to other European bases where governments have scrapped tourist taxes and reduced passenger charges, in some case to zero, in order to grow tourism and traffic".

Mr O'Leary said: "Ryanair's cutbacks show just how much the UK's tourist tax and BAA's high airport charges are damaging UK tourism."