Passengers warned of soaring ticket prices as airlines slash 60m seats in bid to cut costs

One in 14 of the world's airline seats are expected to be axed from October. An average 4 per cent hike in fares would cost a family of four around £150 extra for a long-haul flight.

The prediction came from the airline industry 'bible', travel information company OAG. It says there will be a 7 per cent fall in the number of flights offered in the last three months of this year.

British Airways and Ryanair have already set out plans to slash their services.

Ryanair's Michael O'Leary has said that his firm will try and cut prices

BA warned  that  it was 'absolutely inevitable' that fares would rise by up to 4 per cent as it cut 1 in 20 of its flights.

Budget airline Ryanair made a  pre-tax loss of £71.7million  in the last quarter and  announced it is to axe 1 in 7 (14 per cent) of its flights from Stansted this winter as part of a 10 per cent overall reduction.

But Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary has pledged to cut fares by 5 per cent to ride out the downturn and force his rivals out of business.

Today's doom and gloom prediction came from the airline industry 'bible' , travel information company OAG.

It supported the depressing views already expounded by airline bosses.

The OAG report said world aviation could be facing its worst-ever global downturn

It says there will be a  7 per cent  fall in the number of flights offered by airlines in the last three months of this year.

Airlines worldwide will offer 59.7 million fewer seats in October-December 2008 compared with the same period last year, OAG added.

OAG chief operating officer Steve Casley said: 'From our statistics, it looks quite possible that we may be facing a far more severe global downturn than we have experienced before.'

He added: 'The industry's resilience will be pushed to its limits in the coming months, with carriers, airports and passengers alike all waiting and watching for a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel.'

Routes would be axed at 275 airports around the world in the autumn 2008 period, said OAG.

Worst-hit sector in October-December 2008 is the US domestic market which will account for nearly 20million of the drop in seats available.

The number of Asian and European flights will also be cut.

But long-distance transatlantic routes are bucking the trend by showing a 1 per cent increase in flights for autumn 2008.

Mr Casley added: 'The data speaks for itself. It took a good three years for the industry to recover from the downturn in 2001 when it had a 5 per cent  drop in capacity and a 7 per cent drop in flights.

'Steady annual growth since 2002 looks set to plummet in the fourth quarter this year with an unprecedented global decline of 7 per cent.

British Airways chief executive Willie Walsh said last week that fare rises were 'absolutely inevitable’  to reflect the soaring costs - with BA's fuel costs rising from £2billion to £3billion.

He said airlines were now operating in the 'worst trading environment ever' as he announced an 88 per cent slump in BA first-quarter profits for 2008-09.

Gatwick, Scotland and short-haul Continental destinations such as Paris, Frankfurt, Berlin, Toulouse, Frankfurt  and Amsterdam bore the brunt of the BA flights axe as  thousands  were cut from  BA's winter schedule which runs from October through to March.

The signalled 4 per cent average hike in fares would cost a family of  four around  £150 more to fly to Orlando in Florida where economy return  tickets are  selling at £954 each.

A family of four  would pay £60 more to fly return to Los Angeles, £48 more to New York, nearly £100 more to Cape Town or Mauritius, and around £136 more to Sydney. On top of that there are hefty fuel surcharges of £872 for a family of four.

The price rises will add to the expected drop in passenger numbers, he said.

BA's winter schedule cuts represent a  3.1 per cent  decrease on current levels, but a 6.4 reduction on the number of flights it had planned to run before the economic crisis deepened.

That equates to nearly 5,000 fewer flights than last year but nearly 9,000 fewer than it had planned to run.

There are fears that with no signs of the economy improving, the Summer schedule will be next for the axe.

It is axing completely four short-haul routes from Gatwick  include those to Posnan in Poland, Sarajevo in Bosnia, Dresden in Germany and Newquay in Cornwall.

Planned new routes to Oporto and Valencia have been put on hold. One daily Heathrow  flight to New York JFK and one to Tokyo Narita is being axed.