Ryanair cuts Liverpool flights

Thursday 19th February 2009

Ryanair cut capacity at Liverpool airport

Ryanair is reducing capacity at Liverpool airport, citing the "government's greedy APD" and the weak sterling as the two main reasons.

The budget airline will be cutting ten destinations from the Merseyside airport, resulting in the loss of 50 pilot, cabin crew and engineering jobs.

One aircraft will also be removed from Liverpool airport, leaving six remaining. As a consequence, the airport is expected to suffer a 200,000 passenger drop from 2.7 million to 2.5 million between 2008 and 2009.

Redundant Ryanair destinations from Liverpool airport now include Paris, Budapest, Valencia, Faro and Lodz while the airline anticipates future cuts in the winter schedule.

Ryanair's Deputy chief executive, Michael Cawley, said: "The decision by the UK Government to continue to impose high Air Passenger Duty charges and increase them over the next two years is completely unacceptable given the current economic climate.

"Ryanair has repeatedly called for this tax to be scrapped by highlighting that such travel taxes have failed in both the UK and Dutch markets, where they immediately resulted in traffic declines and sadly these declines look set to continue.

"This government must realise you can only promote tourism by welcoming visitors, not taxing them.

"These cuts can and will be reversed if the government’s greedy APD is scrapped – only then can we grow passenger traffic at Liverpool and throughout the UK."