Budget airline easyJet is to close its base at East Midlands airport and reduce the number of its flights out of Luton airport by 20 per cent.

The airline will move its services to more profitable airports and expects to redeploy most of the aircraft to continental European bases. Its overall growth plans remain unchanged at around 7.5 per cent per year over the medium term. Of the Luton reduction - where the company employs 530 pilots and cabin crew and operates 16 aircraft - easyJet said that costs at the Bedfordshire airport have risen by 25 per cent over the past three years and this made its base there no longer competitive. The company has been in lengthy negotiations with Abertis, Luton's Spanish operator, and its owner, Luton Borough Council, but these have broken down, a situation which easyJet claims is the airport's "failure to recognise the commercial realities of the recession."

The closure of easyJet's base at East Midlands is put down to its having remained stagnant for many years and there being no sign of long term growth at the site. The company currently employs 120 staff at the airport, operating three aircraft. easyJet also claims that the situation at both airports has been exacerbated due to the rise in Airport Passenger Duty.

In addition to the proposal to move aircraft from Luton and East Midlands, the company will be consulting on a reduction of the number of flight crew at Belfast, Bristol, Newcastle and Stansted. The number of aircraft based at these airports is expected to remain stable.