BUDGET airline Ryanair today warned of hundreds of job losses at Stansted Airport as it announced a 14% cut-back in flights for the coming winter. Irish-based Ryanair, which also announced cuts in services from Dublin earlier this week, blamed the move on a number of factors including the increase in fuel prices, the cost of using Stansted and a “total failure” of the Civil Aviation Authority's regulatory regime.

BUDGET airline Ryanair today warned of hundreds of job losses at Stansted Airport as it announced a 14% cut-back in flights for the coming winter.

Irish-based Ryanair, which also announced cuts in services from Dublin earlier this week, blamed the move on a number of factors including the increase in fuel prices, the cost of using Stansted and a “total failure” of the Civil Aviation Authority's regulatory regime.

Ryanair plans to “ground” eight of its 36 planes based at Stansted, reducing its number of flights from the Essex airport from 1,850 to 1,600.

As a result, Ryanair said it would be axing around 150 jobs at Stansted and it claimed that as many as 900 jobs could go in all as a result of its cutbacks, which it predicted would see it carry 900,000 fewer passengers than last winter.

Ryanair chief executive Michael O'Leary said that no routes would be axed entirely, but frequencies would be reduced in almost all cases.

However, he repeated Ryanair's long-standing pledge not to impose fuel surcharges.