Ryanair will cut its services to and from Sweden by more than half following proposals by the Swedish government to introduce a SEK94 ($13.10) ticket tax on European flights and a SEK188 levy on long-haul flights as from 1 August.

“The Swedish government is destroying low-fare travel for Swedes and for those people who want to visit this beautiful country by attempting to push up the average cost of Ryanair’s fares by over 30 per cent,” Deputy CEO Michael Cawley said. “The introduction of this tax will make Swedish tourism uncompetitive when compared with cheaper alternatives in Spain, Italy and elsewhere in Europe.”

The Irish LCC will cancel its twice-daily Vasteras-London Luton service, reduce its Malmo-Sturup-London Stansted service from twice-daily to daily and reduce its Gothenburg City-Glasgow Prestwick service from five weekly flights to three from 20 October. Last year Ryanair carried more than 2.4 million passengers to and from Sweden.

Separately, Ryanair said British Airways’ BA Connect has removed seven routes from its winter timetable, “acknowledging they can’t compete,” according to Cawley. Ryanair reported that BA Connect will abandon service from London Gatwick to Seville and Nantes and from Manchester to Marrakech, Malaga, Malta, Las Palmas and Lanzarote. Ryanair serves those markets from Stansted and Liverpool respectively.