Ryanair, the low-cost Irish airline, threatened yesterday to scrap six of its under-performing routes unless there was a significant improvement in passenger numbers in the next two months.
The routes include at least one destination in France which Ryanair inherited through the takeover of its rival carrier Buzz earlier this year
and three services from Stockholm's Skavska airport, which is owned by the UK airports operator TBI.
Michael O'Leary, Ryanair's chief executive, said the proportion of seats filled on the vulnerable routes was unacceptable at about 70 per cent and blamed some of the problems on the poor performance of the airport operators.
Apart from the three Scandanavian services, the other routes at risk are from Stansted to destinations in France, Belgium and the Netherlands.
Mr O'Leary was unrepentant about the possibility of closing down services used by Britons to reach holiday homes on the Continent.
"Please don't ask me to feel sorry for rich people who have second homes in France. We don't have an obligation to go on carrying them to their destinations for ever and a day. If routes don't work, we won't hang around."
- INDEPENDENT
