Andy,

I think your comments are absolutely fair and right. The point is that with increased airport charges and APD, the costs of operating at London Stansted are too high for their business model, so they’re withdrawing capacity from the market and placing it where they can make more money. This is a sensible business move which woudl not be frowned upon by any other airline or indeed in other industries, so I think we have to be careful that it isn’t Ryanair bashing rather than acknowledgement that this is a business decision based on their costs and revenues and something had to push some routes over the edge.

RYR are just the most vocal about the issue in the hope that the withdrawal will prompt a rethink by the Govt. It is true to say that this will have an effect on inbound expenditure in the UK and that needs to be considered in truth. What also needs to be considered is the effect this will have on Stansted which saw passenger numbers go into free fall before the recession due to withdrawal of servcies reuslting from charges increases. At some point BAA will end up having less income overall because of higher charges than they woudl have if they’d kept the charges lower.

Having said all that, I know another airline which is looking at SUBSTANTIAL cuts in the London market due to charges and APD having a cumulative effect on their business.