The no-frills airline Easyjet has announced that it is cancelling flights between Northern Ireland and Scotland that are operated by Go.

Easyjet bought Go earlier this month for �374m.

The flights will end next Tuesday and 10,000 passengers will have to transfer to Easyjet flights where available.

Both Easyjet and Go flew from Belfast to Glasgow and Edinburgh, and Easyjet has said that too many passengers were effectively travelling for free, paying just the tax.

Last week Easyjet said it was cutting about four flights a day, due to problems with its staff rota.

Switching flights

At present Easyjet operates three flights a day from Belfast to Glasgow and Belfast to Edinburgh, while Go flies three times a day to Glasgow and twice to Edinburgh.

Easyjet said all passengers with Go tickets would be offered an alternative flight on Easyjet where available, or their money back.

"We've artificially limited capacity that is available on almost all of our services over the next few weeks in order to accommodate all of the Go passengers," Easyjet's Toby Nichol told BBC Radio Five Live.

Mr Nichol said Easyjet would not be cancelling any other services where the two airlines operated on similar routes.

He said the services being cut were unusual as they were the only ones where Easyjet and Go flew to and from the same airports.

Mr Nichol also denied that the action suggested Easyjet's takeover of Go would lead to higher air fares.

"If a low-cost airline wants to come into competition on that route or any other route they're absolutely allowed to," he said.

"If any airline - be it Easyjet, Ryanair or British Airways - starts over-charging passengers another airline can simply come in and start operating services."

Passengers affected by the cancellations should call the Go Reservation Line on 0870 6076543.