I just don't believe RyanAir's headline grabbing "Air-tax causes cancellation of a third of flights"

I just don't believe RyanAir ... but they are very clever with their press releases.

Last week I wrote about RyanAir asking if you'd be prepared to stand up on your flight I mused afterwards that they were being very clever with getting press (and Blog!) column inches.

Well they've surpassed that announcement as yesterday RyanAir announced that they were cutting flights out of Stansted by 40%, blaming high handling fees at Stansted and the impending £1 increase in Air Passenger Duty that comes into force in November this year.

Many newspapers and TV channels have picked up on this and RyanAir must have been delighted to have grabbed both the front page and page 1 of today's paper and the full article about 'Airlines cut flights in tax-hike protest' on their website.

I just don't believe a word of the RyanAir announcement. RyanAir is simply cutting capacity over the winter period when less people want to fly (as they did last year) and then I can predict with absolute certainty that come the Spring there'll be a host of press releases on RyanAir's website that "RyanAir announces major expansion with flights to X, Y and Z".

Headline grabbing and nothing more in my opinion. And its worked!

Air Passenger Duty is a flat rate "green" tax based on the distance flown - shorthaul flights are currently £10, rising to £11 in November 2009 and then £20 in November 2010 (long-haul flights are up to £40 now, rising to £90 next year).

I do agree that APD isn't being properly reinvested in green initiatives and I also agree that isn't a fairly levied tax, it should be based upon the actual CO2 of the planes in use to encourage airlines to run modern more efficient aircraft ... but then the cynic in me says that they'd then claim that the government regulations were over-bureaucratic!