Budget carrier, Ryanair, has announced that in reaction to the UK government’s Air Passenger Duty (APD), it will be reducing its winter capacity in the UK by 16 per cent. The airline claims that by doing this it will be able to reduce costs and boost profits. Speaking at a press conference, Ryanair’s chief executive, Michael O’Leary, said that the APD, as well as the high airport charges being levied by BAA, was harming both tourism in the UK and the country’s economy.

Ryanair plans to move some of its London-based aircraft to less expensive European bases where governments have cut back on passenger charges and done away with tourist taxes. The airline claims that this will result in more than 2 million passengers being lost from UK airports.

Mr O’Leary claimed that by simply removing 2 aircraft from its Stansted operations he could save the company around £10 million. By reducing operations at the airport Ryanair predicts that capacity will drop by 17 per cent resulting in a loss of 1.5 million passengers during the winter period from November to March. The knock-on effect of this, according to Ryanair, could be the loss of 2,500 jobs, only 200 which would be Ryanair staff.

Talking about the level of summer bookings, Mr O’Leary said that they jumped significantly the moment England was knocked out of the World Cup. He added that by Monday bookings had increased by around 20 per cent on a week earlier.

Mr. O’Leary admitted that he wouldn’t mind if all of the remaining European teams were knocked out early, as it would be good for business.