RYANAIR is to slash its presence at Belfast International Airport due to the uncertainty created by Brexit, the weak UK market and the British government's refusal to scrap the £26 air passenger duty (APD) on domestic return flights.
The Dublin-based carrier confirmed it is axing routes to Gdansk, Wroclaw and Warsaw in Poland, as well as the service to Malta
But more significantly, it is completely scaling back on its UK operations, reducing frequency on the London Stansted route from three times a day to just twice a week, and Manchester from twice daily to twice weekly.
And that will more than halve the number of passengers it carries from Aldergrove from more than two million to around 850,000.
From next winter Ryanair - which last year faced down a wave of anger after it was forced to cancel thousands of flights due to a pilot rota blunder - will operate just nine routes from Belfast to Alicante, Bergamo, Berlin Schonefeld, Krakow, Lanzarote, London Stansted, Malaga, Manchester and Tenerife.
David O'Brien, chief commercial officer of the Irish airline, said: "Regrettably, at a time of high fuel costs, low fares, and a weak UK market, Ryanair’s Belfast services will be reduced, pending the abolition of air passenger duty (APD) in Northern Ireland.”
A spokesman for Belfast International Airport said: “While we welcome the launch of the Ryanair winter schedule, which offers nine routes and 850,000 seats a year, we are disappointed in the reduction of service, but fully understand the reasons for their decision to reduce their local network.
"The airline can make a greater commercial return across the breadth of their European network where they don’t have the taxation disadvantage posed by APD.
"We have extensively highlighted the problem which this tax creates for air service development and job creation, so far with very limited success.
"But we will continue to fight for the abolition of APD and trust that those with decision making powers will act with the necessary urgency to make the changes required to maintain and develop an effective air travel sector in Northern Ireland.”
Last year Ryanair said it was suspending its Belfast to Gatwick service from November until March, one of 34 routes it grounded for the winter season, in what the carrier's chief executive Michael O'Leary called "sensible schedule changes".
The announcement coincides with new figures revealing that the north's three main airports carried just shy of nine million passengers in 2018 - around three per cent of the record-breaking 292 million people who travelled through all the UK's airports.
Belfast International Airport led the way with 6,269,000 passengers, according to the Civil Aviation Authority.
Some 2,510,000 people used the George Best Belfast City Airport, while 186,000 checked in at City of Derry.
But the picture is different in five-year trends, when the recession was still biting.
Derry Airport carried 385,000 passengers back in 2013, meaning its numbers have slumped by 51.7 per cent, while Belfast City fell back 1.2 per cent from the 2,542,000 five years ago.
However, the equivalent figure at Aldergrove shows that its numbers have jumped by 55.8 per cent from the 4,022,000 passengers it carried back then, ironically buoyed by the arrival of Ryanair, which is now reducing its service.
