Ryanair, expensive energy weighs: goodbye to flights at bargain prices

The news is bound to make noise: Ryanair’s bargain flights are doomed to disappear. Those who rely on the Irish airline to travel throughout Europe will certainly not be happy: despite everything, it is thanks to them that we have learned to move more easily, without the worry of having to pay hundreds of euros to go to London, Barcelona or Oslo. . But now the economic situation in the Old Continent (and beyond) is changing, and with it the future of Ryanair and all other low cost airlines will also change.

Michael O’Leary is certainly not a character easy to be interpreted, between jokes, promises and anticipations of curious arrangements for accommodation in aircraft (remember when he said that in the future there would be no more seats on board?). In this case, however, the discussion appears dry, sincere and direct, focused on rising inflation and onincrease in the cost of energy that the war between Russia and Ukraine triggered. To this must also be added the legacy left from the pandemic which caused an unprecedented aviation crisis. In summary, during an interview with BBC Radio 4 reiterated the concept that we will have to say goodbye to rates from 0.99 or 9.99 euros each way.

These are the words of O’Leary:

I don’t think there will be more flights for 10 euros. Our average rate was 40 euros last year, we will go towards 50 euros over the next 5 years. Our super discounted promotional rates, those at 1 euro, 0.99 or even 9.99 I think will not be seen for a number of years.

This however, it is not a goodbye to low cost, if ever it is at (very) bargain prices: “people will continue to travel frequently“, explains the CEO, therefore the alarmism of certain newspapers that decreed the definitive end of low-cost flights appears decidedly exaggerated. There will be an increase in the average price, yes, and it will most likely be more difficult to find offers at very low cost. Seats at 19.99 euros or 24.99 euros will continue to exist: it is always low cost, even if a little more expensive.