Ryanair, the cut-price Irish airline, today announced it will withdraw nearly a third of its aircraft from London's Stansted airport and suspend operations at seven other European airports because of higher fuel costs and airport fees.

Michael O'Leary, chief executive at Ryanair, said his airline would operate 28 aircraft out of Stansted, down from 40.

The number of weekly flights will also fall by 14 per cent to 1,600 and the company estimates the number of passengers travelling on its aircraft will decline by 900,000.

As a result of the groundings, Ryanair confirmed it will shed 150 staff at Stansted airport.

It is the second straight year that Ryanair has reduced its activities at Stansted for its October to March winter period.

Ryanair also announced it would cancel its services from November 4 to December 19 at seven destinations: Basel in Switzerland; the Hungarian capital Budapest; the Polish cities of Krakow and Rzeszow, Palma and Valencia in Spain; and Salzburg in Austria.

The company also warned of further disruptions if those airports do not discount their fees during low-demand periods.

Mr O'Leary said: "High airport charges and the massive increases which we face in fuel prices, makes it more profitable for Ryanair to ground aircraft rather than fly them at these airports during this period."

Last month, Mr O'Leary said that high oil prices would drive "crappy competitors" out of the airline business.

Mr O'Leary said today that Stansted was the most expensive of its 28 bases, and again hit out at owner, BAA, for raising charges by 15 per cent this year. BAA rejected a proposal by Ryanair to reduce charges over the winter.

The Civil Aviation Authority recently joined calls by the Competition Commission to break up BAA because of its virtual monopoly over London's three major airports - Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted.

"These winter schedule cutbacks, which are significantly greater than those of last winter, show just how damaging the BAA monopoly has become to consumers and the best interests of London and UK tourism and the economy in general," Mr O'Leary said.

He accused BAA of increasing charges at three times the rate of inflation while providing a "miserable service and inadequate facilities".

He said: "Passengers continue to suffer long queues at security and passport control and frequent baggage belt failures at Stansted because BAA refuses to staff or operate these facilities adequately," he said.

Responding to his comments, a BAA spokesman accused Mr O’Leary of using figures that the airport owner doesn’t recognise to suit his own purposes. “Numbers and statistics have been banded around – many of which we simply don’t recognise. It is up to Ryanair, as with BAA, to make the right decisions for their companies at times like this, and the massive hike in oil price is obviously a major influence in decision-making,” the spokesman said.

BAA said Ryanair was already laying off staff at Stansted before the latest winter route cutbacks.

He went on to call for calm in the increasingly bitter – and public – brawl between Ryanair and BAA. “Surely, this is a time for our industry to pull together, not spat with each other by press release,” he said.

Amid the cutbacks, Ryanair also announced six new "sun destination" routes over winter to Malaga, Ibiza, Tenerife, Fuerteventura, Katowice in Poland and Basel in Switzerland from December 21. All new winter routes operate from Stansted, a decision welcomed by BAA last night.

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