Ryanair, the cut price airline specialising in cheap flights, have announced a dramatic 40% cut its Stansted Airport Winter Schedule starting in October ’09.
Ryanair currently operate 40 aircraft from Stansted Airport but will reduce this to 24 aircraft and in addition will also reduce the number of weekly flights by 30%.
This will have the net effect of reducing Ryanair’s passenger numbers who enjoy the benefit of cheap flights by an estimated 2.5 million between October this year and March 2010.
Ryanair’s Chief Exec Michael O’Leary has blamed the drastic cuts on Gordon Brown’s £10 tourist tax and BAA’s high airport charges, saying that these are also damaging London and UK tourism and the British economy generally.
This follows on from the Belgian, Dutch, Greek and Spanish governments scrapping tourist taxes and/or reducing airport charges in order to stimulate tourism. Meanwhile the UK Government plans to increase its £10 tourist tax to £11 from November.
This latest announcement from Ryanair will not only impact the availability of cheap flights but also coincides with Ryanair’s closure of baggage check in and the introduction of additional charges for placing baggage in the hold.
Therefore, to get the “true” cheap flight price as advertised you will have to increasingly rely on taking just carry on hand luggage, with the contents complying with the current airport security hand luggage restrictions. This makes it all more important to be doubly cost effective and use travel sized toiletries when going on holidays or flights abroad.
