Ryanair has announced it is curtailing its services for the winter, blaming high oil prices and airport charges for the move.
The company announced this morning that it would be cutting back on flights at Stansted, blaming the high costs of doing business at the airport and rising oil prices.
The no-frills carrier said it plans to cut the number of aircraft at the London airport this winter by 25 per cent to 28, and will also reduce the number of weekly flight by 14 per cent to 1,600.
Ryanair is predicting that its passenger traffic will fall by 900,000 passengers at the airport compared to last year's winter schedule.
The chief executive of Ryanair, Michael O'Leary, said the cutbacks were "significantly greater" than last year's, and criticised the British Airport Authority for rejecting the airline's offer to continue operating the flights if it received a discount on airport charges.
A spokesperson for BAA Stansted said the aviation industry, like others, is coping with the challenges of a global economic downturn.
"It is up to Ryanair, as with BAA, to make the right decisions for their companies at times like this, and the massive hike in oil price is obviously a major influence in decision-making," the airport authority said.
"Cost cutting and improved efficiency is key; and Ryanair is already laying-off staff at Stansted as they introduce self-service check-in."
BAA Stansted said it was a time for the industry to pull together, and that it was open to continuing to meet with Ryanair but would not conduct commerical negotiations in public.
Meanwhile, the airline is also set to temporarily close operations at between November 4th and December 19th at a number of European airports, including Budapest, Krakow, Palma and Salzburg.
Ryanair's deputy chief executive Michael Cawley said the airline regretted the closure, but "a combination of high airport charges and the massive increases which we face in fuel prices makes it more profitable for Ryanair to ground aircraft rather than fly them at these airports during this period".
"These flights the passengers would not be lost to these cities or tourism if they had responded adequately to Ryanair's proposals for cost reductions on these flights for the winter season," he said.