Ryanair has just recently announced that it will be doing a 40 percent cutback in capacity to its Stansted services this winter. This means the number of operational aircraft will be down from 40 to 24.

The chief executive for Ryanair, Mr. Michael O’Leary, has cited Stansted’s high passenger fees as the main reason for the big reduction. He went on to say that the increase in the airport passenger duty from £10 to £11 in November, despite the current aviation downturn, plays a role in it as well.

Mr. O’Leary went on to say that, sadly, the UK traffic and tourism industry continues to collapse while Ryanair continues to grow in countries that are welcoming tourists instead of taxing them. He noted that Ryanair’s 40 percent capacity cutback at London Stansted shows just how much Gordon Brown’s £10 tourist tax and the British Airports Authority monopoly on high airport charges are damaging London and UK tourism. He also pointed out that it really is damaging the British economy as a whole.

O’Leary said that others, like the Dutch, Greek, Spanish and Belgian governments, have chosen to scrap the tourist taxes in recent months. They have also chosen to reduce airport charges to zero in order to stimulate tourism. O’Leary said that these cutbacks show the urgent need to break up the BAA airport monopoly and scrap the tourist tax.

Just last winter, Ryanair also made cuts in Stansted from 36 planes to 28. Ryanair also said that it was simply going to move its 16 planes from Stansted to another European-based location.