Ryanair Cuts Liverpool Network

Feb 19, 2009
By Darren Shannon



Ryanair has announced a cut in the summer schedule for its operations at Liverpool Airport, citing the U.K. government’s airport passenger tax and a dramatic drop in the value of the country’s currency.

The contraction will also affect staff levels at the airport, with the loss of 50 pilot, cabin crew and engineer positions targeted.

Further cuts for Ryanair’s winter schedule from Liverpool, located in England’s Northwest, are also planned, the Irish low-cost said in a release.

“The combination of the high cost government APD [airport passenger duty] and falls in sterling has already created a traffic collapse at Liverpool Airport,” said Ryanair Deputy Chief Executive and Chief Operating Officer Michael Cawley. “The decision by the U.K. government to continue to impose high APD charges and increase them over the next two years is completely unacceptable given the current economic climate.”

Ryanair’s decision will drop one aircraft from the seven Boeing 737s currently based at Liverpool, and 26 weekly services from the 189 now operating. Both represent a 14% year-on-year decrease.

The airline also said these cuts will reduce traffic from 2.7 million passengers in 2008 to 2.5 million over the next two years.

Late last year the U.K. government unveiled a four-tiered ADP program based on the distance flown from London to the destination country’s capital. This change coming in November will most affect taxes on longer-haul services.

Local reports also said 10 routes will be cut from Liverpool’s schedule: Hungarian capital Budapest; Faro, Portugal; Friedrichshafen, Germany; Gdansk, Lodz, and Szczecin, Poland; Paris; Salzburg, Austria; and Santiago and Valencia, Spain.

Photo: Boeing