Budget airline, Ryanair, has launched nine new routes whilst cutting nine existing ones.

The carrier will now operate from London Stansted to Linz in Austria; Bari, Italy; Erfurt, Germany and Jerez, Spain. Stockholm Skavsta will see new Ryanair flights to Rome and Milan; Frankfurt Hahn to Reus in Spain and Tampere, Finland and Brussels Charleroi to Vallodolid in Spain.

Several existing routes will be axed on 14 January, including Stansted to Ostend, Maastricht, Reims and Clermont Ferrand; from Stockholm to Oslo Torp, Tampere and Aarhus; from Frankfurt to Malmo and from Brussels to Liverpool.

Elsewhere, the Advertising Standards Authority has accused Ryanair of inaccurate advertising after it attached 'Lyon' to advertisements for flights to St Etienne. The ASA said that as the two towns were well over 40 miles apart it was misleading to class St Etienne as serving Lyon and ordered the company to remove the reference to Lyon.

In another court case, both Ryanair and BAA, the operators of Stansted airport, have been accused of disability discrimination after a cerebral palsy sufferer was charged £18 by Ryanair for the use of a wheelchair from the check-in point to the departure gate. The same charge was levied on his return.

Ryanair claims that airports should pay for wheelchairs and said most of the airports it operates to provide them free of charge.

For its part, BAA said an individual airline had responsibility for its passengers between check-in and the aircraft and claims this policy is complied with by other carriers. The case continues.