Ryanair has announced plans to cut its Stansted traffic by 9 per cent “over the coming year”, following what it referred to as “unjustified and inflation-busting increases” in fees at the airport.
The no-frills carrier made its decision within hours of the formal announcement that the sale of the Essex airport to Manchester Airports Group had been completed.
Ryanair said it had originally planned to increase its Stansted traffic by 5 per cent from April, but will now cut frequencies on 43 routes and reduce weekly operations by more than 170 flights.
The airline said the decision by outgoing owners Heathrow Airport Holdings Ltd (formerly BAA) to increase fees by 6 per cent was “a parting slap to Stansted’s airlines and passengers”.
“Given that Ferrovial/BAA has now agreed to sell the airport to MAG, it is impossible to understand why the BAA monopoly is again raising Stansted’s prices from April 2013 when it clearly won’t be running the airport from that date,” said Ryanair’s spokesman Robin Kiely.
“Ryanair and other Stansted airlines now must ask was this surprise price increase part of a “sweetener” package to persuade MAG to pay £1.5bn for Stansted? Are passengers and airlines at Stansted again being hit in order to boost the sales proceeds for the Spanish giant, Ferrovial, from the sale of BAA Stansted?”
MAG was announced as the winning bidder for the sale of Stansted airport last month, and at the time said it had "a detailed integration plan in place to ensure a seamless transition of ownership and operations at Stansted which will maintain business as usual for passengers and customers".