Ryanair chairman offloads shares

Ryanair's chairman David Bonderman has sold more than €1m worth of shares in the company.

He offloaded 300,000 shares at €3.35 a time. Ryanair said that this amounts to about 0.02% of the company and that Bonderman now has about 0.93%.

News of the share sale comes on the same day Ryanair said it will freeze growth at its nine UK bases with immediate effect as it focuses growth on other European destinations.

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"Ryanair will grow by 15% this year to over 67m passengers," said the airline's outspoken chief executive Michael O' Leary.

"However, the UK will not share in any of this growth in 2009 as Ryanair (the only major European airline continuing to grow) freezes growth at our nine UK bases."

He blamed the £10 tourist tax and the charges airport operator BAA imposes on airlines.

He also called on Prime Minister Gordon Brown to speed up the sale of London's Gatwick and Stansted airports, which are currently operated by BAA.

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