Ryanair cuts down on winter flights

Ryanair announced substantial cutbacks today in its number of flights from Stansted Airport next winter.

The no-frills carrier said it would making a 14% reduction in the number of weekly flights for winter 2008/09 at Stansted airport in Essex, England.

The number of weekly flights will be cut from more than 1,850 to just under 1,600 this winter and the airline reckons it will carry around 900,000 fewer passengers than last winter.

Ryanair has 36 planes based at Stansted, but this will be reduced to 28.

The airline blamed the capacity cutback, which follows its announcement earlier this week of fewer flights this winter from Dublin, on a number of reasons.

These include the huge hike in oil prices, the “expense” of using Stansted and the “total failure of the inadequate Civil Aviation Authority regulatory regime” to control costs for airlines at Stansted.