In a completely expected announcement, with Air Passenger Duty (APD) on the rise, Ryanair is preparing to axe some flights to and from the United Kingdom.
The airline condemned the move of the Air Passenger Duty rises – which will add an additional £1 to a domestic flight and £2 to a flight operating inside Ryanairs range.
Thus Ryanair is considering cuts in flights by 10% in 2025.
According to the airline, a family of 4 flying to Spain on a low-cost holiday next year will pay £60 in air travel taxes. The airline notes that this anti-growth tax hike will damage UK tourism, jobs and economic growth, especially the UK Regions, with Regional Airports being particularly damaged by this tax on ordinary families. Higher air travel taxes means higher UK access costs, which makes the UK a less competitive destination for tourism and airline investment. Less tourism means fewer flights, higher fares, and job losses which will be especially damaging for UK Regional Airports and for UK domestic flights.
In Quotes
Ryanair’s Shy and Retiring CEO Michael O’Leary said in a statement:
“As an Island economy on the periphery of Europe, it is vital that the UK lowers air access costs so that low fare Airlines can grow tourism, traffic, visitor numbers and jobs especially in the regions. Instead, Chancellor Rachel Reeves this week has damaged the UK’s growth prospects and made air travel much more expensive for UK families travelling abroad on holidays, or to visit friends and family.
This Labour Govt promised to deliver growth but instead their first budget has damaged growth, damaged tourism, and damaged air travel to/from the UK. At a time when Ireland, Hungary, Sweden and many regions in Italy have abolished air travel taxes, Chancellor Rachel Reeves idiotic decision to further raise the UK’s already high air travel taxes will deliver cuts, not growth.
This week’s anti-growth air tax increase shows that Chancellor Rachel Reeves has no clue how to deliver growth in the UK economy. This short-sighted tax grab will make air travel much more expensive for ordinary UK families going on holidays abroad and will make the UK a less competitive destination compared to Ireland, Sweden, Hungary and Italy where these Govt’s are abolishing travel taxes to stimulate traffic, tourism, and jobs growth in their economies. Ryanair will now review its UK schedules and expects to cut capacity to/from UK airports by up to 10% in 2025. This will reduce air travel to/from the UK by up to 5m passengers as the Labour Govt’s budget delivers higher taxes and tourism declines not growth.”
We’ll see
So far, we’re at the bluster part of the “flights shouldn’t cost more” and “more taxes is bad against our headline fares”. Ryanair will no doubt review its UK network and use it to cut some of routes that don’t make financial sense (even if there wasn’t an APD rise).
We’ll have to see where the axe falls;
With the APD rises occurring over the next few years (with the UK government seeing its luxury tax to fly out or within of the country), it is indeed – unwelcome for all travellers.
Will the protests of one of the larger carriers which operate in and out of the United Kingdom make a difference? We’ll have to see.
At least it’s not the proposed rates that Private Jets will fly at.
Economy Class and Beyond has conducted an analysis that might be worth reading concerning the upcoming Air Passenger Duty changes. You can find it at https://economyclassandbeyond.boardingarea.com/2024/10/31/uk-air-passenger-duty-rises-ahead/
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