Ryanair warns of price increase in Dublin to London Christmas flights
Ryanair’s boss has warned passengers that they can expect a significantly higher fare in Dublin to London one-way flights this Christmas.
Ahead of the busy festive season later this year, Michael O’Leary has admitted that the airline will struggle to keep fares down this December, due to there being a lack of extra slots at Dublin Airport.
Speaking to RTÉ Radio One’s Morning Ireland, Mr O’Leary detailed that both Ryanair and other airlines applied for extra slots for flights this Christmas, but the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) denied the requests.
“We run about 270,000 extra slots at Christmas time every year just to keep fares down. We can’t run those extra slots… therefore the fares this Christmas will be double or triple,” he explained, adding: “We think the fares will be about €500 one-way.”
Mr O’Leary then went on to share that he received a letter from the IAA earlier this month, informing him that there will be a reduction of one million passengers at Dublin Airport next year.
“They have written to all the airlines at the airport and the daa inviting us to submit proposals as to how such a reduction would be implemented in practice and to ensure that any such reduction would be optimally implemented,” he stated.
The IAA has since confirmed that they intend to publish a draft decision next month, describing it as “the first time the IAA will make any suggestion or proposal in relation to capacity for summer 2025”.
Speaking about the issues, Mr O’Leary argued: “The problem here is that we have a ridiculous traffic cap of 32 million passengers on the main gateway airport in Ireland. It was imposed in 2007 because there were serious concerns about road access to the airport. Those fears no longer apply.”
“Airlines all over Europe, including Aer Lingus, American Airways and Ryanair want to add new routes to our main gateway to this island,” he said, concluding: “We would have added another three aircraft and another million passengers if there were no restrictions at the airport.”
