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Date Published: 17/05/2022

ARCHIVED - Ryanair warns of flight price hikes to Spain this summer

ARCHIVED ARTICLE

The airline boss reports a huge surge in demand to Spanish and European beach destinations

<span style='color:#780948'>ARCHIVED</span> - Ryanair warns of flight price hikes to Spain this summer

Sun-seekers may need to get booking their holidays early this year as Irish airline Ryanair has warned that summer flights are likely to rise by a “high single-digit per cent” thanks to a renewed demand for beach getaways.

After reporting losses in the region of 355 million euros earlier this week, Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary said that reduced travel restrictions should help the airline return to “reasonable profitability” this fiscal year, but the rise of the Omicron variant, followed by the invasion of Ukraine, has severely hampered recovery.

Last month, Ryanair boasted that they had purchased a huge amount of jet fuel in advance which would help them keep prices low, but the company now appears to be backpedalling on that promise amid fears that Russia could further interrupt fuel supplies in the coming weeks and months.

The CEO said that June prices are likely to remain below pre-pandemic levels but after this point, “based on about 50% of all bookings,” they are likely to skyrocket.

“It seems to us that there will be higher prices into that peak summer period because there’s so much demand for the beaches of Europe and those price rises going to continue,” Mr O’Leary said.

Also of interest: Spain extends Covid entry restrictions for unvaccinated third country and UK travellers

“I think prices will be low next winter. But it’s too early to say, there’s clearly going to be an economic downturn, there’s some fear of recession and in a recession the lowest-cost provider, which in the UK and in Europe is Ryanair, will do better because we can sustain lower prices.”

With this upsurge in bookings, Ryanair hopes to carry 165 million passengers this year, beating the 149 million record set pre-Covid, and has already vowed to be the airline that leads the sector’s recovery in Spain.

While several airlines such as Jet2, easyJet and British Airways have been making cut-backs to cope with staff shortages, Mr O’Leary said that Ryanair was facing none of these personnel problems, although he hopes that the “pinch points” that have been causing huge delays in UK airports will be ironed out before the summer season begins in earnest.

He said: “There’s no doubt I think getting through airports this summer is going to be challenging and we’re encouraging all of our customers to show up earlier and allow more time to get through airport security.”

Image: Archive

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