Ryanair warns air travel tax rises mean 10% of UK flights could be cut

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Ryanair has warned it may cut the number of flights from the UK by up to 10 per cent next year blaming tax rises on air travel, which are set to increase further following Labour’s Budget this week.

Europe’s largest low-cost carrier said the decision to raise air passenger duty would reduce travel to and from the UK by up to 5mn passengers.

Michael O’Leary, chief executive, said the government had “promised to deliver growth” but instead its first budget had “damaged growth, damaged tourism, and damaged air travel to [and] from the UK”. 

“Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ idiotic decision to further raise the UK’s already high air travel taxes will deliver cuts, not growth,” he added. 

Air passenger duty is charged on each ticket sold for a domestic or international flight departing the UK and is calculated on the length of a journey and whether a passenger is in an economy or premium seat. 

It typically rises in line with the retail price index, and was already due to rise on some flights in April 2025. 

But in its Budget the government said passengers will also face an additional 13 per cent increase on all commercial flights from 2026-27, equivalent to £2 for passengers flying on an economy short-haul flight, and £12 for long-haul.

Taxes on the largest private jets will rise by an extra 50 per cent, Reeves also announced on Wednesday. 

The airline has threatened to shift flights away from countries with high taxes. Ryanair has warned it could cut 1.5mn seats from its flights to and from Germany because of its aviation taxes. The latest warning from Ryanair comes after the carrier said last month it would fly fewer passengers than planned next summer because of ongoing delivery delays from Boeing. 

The airline is Boeing’s largest customer in Europe and had been scheduled to receive 30 Boeing 737 aircraft between March and June next year to help it meet ambitious growth targets. Production at Boeing’s main factories in Washington state, however, has been halted amid a long-running strike by its largest union.

In a bid to break the deadlock, Boeing on Thursday put forward another revised proposal, including a 38 per cent increase to wages over four years. The union originally demanded a 40 per cent pay rise and improved conditions. The strike began in September after the union rejected a 25 per cent increase. Members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers District 751 will vote on the proposal on Monday.