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Ryanair is pleased to promote airplane tickets at a loss so as to get folks on its planes throughout off-peak spells, the chief government has stated, as he shared that low-cost flights will proceed to be on supply – although not as cheap as they as soon as have been.
Michael O’Leary was talking to The Independent after analysis confirmed a variety of flights promoting for lower than the £13 Air Passenger Duty his airline should pay when a buyer steps on board a Ryanair airplane from the UK.
From London Stansted to Venice, a £12.99 fare is out there any day from Saturday 20 January to Thursday 25 January.
The similar applies from the Essex airport to Catania in Sicily, all week from Thursday 18 January to Wednesday 24 January. The one-way journey is 1,230 miles, for a £12.99 fare that’s lower than the Stansted Express prepare from London to the airport – even with a railcard.
A snapshot by The Independent discovered the identical £12.99 deal for flights departing from British airports on Wednesday 24 January, such as Bristol to Sofia in Bulgaria – a three-hour journey masking nearly 1,400 miles. Other journeys accessible at the identical fare on the identical day embody Belfast International to Porto and Stansted to Prague or Baden Baden.
“There will always be periods of time, particularly at this time of the year – January, February before you get to the school mid-term break or the Easter holidays or summer – where we’re trying to fill flights,” Mr O’Leary stated.
“We’re happy to fill flights at loss-making air fares. So there will still be lots of low air fares.”
The airline tells traders it has a “load factor active – yield passive strategy whereby seats are priced to ensure that high load factor targets are achieved”.
In 2022, Michael O’Leary stated the times of €9.99 (£8.50) flights have been over – a view he reiterated to The Independent for 2024.
“We’re now paying $80 a barrel for fuel. I don’t think you’ll see a return to £9.99 air fares but £15, £20, £25 is still a phenomenally cheap air fare – when you go back to the pre-deregulation days of the 1980s or the early 1990s when airfares were regularly £200 or £300.”
Anna Hughes, director of Flight Free UK, stated: “We are starting to see the reality of the climate crisis, with extreme weather events across the UK and Europe becoming more and more frequent.
“This is caused by our excessive emissions and high-carbon lifestyles, which involves an apparently insatiable appetite for air travel. Flight numbers soaring beyond pre-pandemic levels will only make our already fragile climate situation worse.”
The £12.99 Ryanair flights enable just one small backpack to be carried on board, with random seat project. Anything else – from greater cabin or checked baggage to speedy boarding – is further.
The aviation analyst Sean Moulton stated: “Ryanair are looking to gain market share and airport dominance through low fares by generating more passengers and thus lower costs at major airports.
“Ryanair also make the bulk of its profit through ancillary services such as check-in bags, seat selection and onboard sales which offset their low fares and to ensure they remain profitable.”
Ryanair has forecast full-year earnings of round €2bn (£1.72bn).
Mr O’Leary predicted the summer season of 2024 would expertise much less flight disruption than final 12 months, although air-traffic management points stay a priority.
”I feel the French air site visitors management strikes will proceed. Europe has failed to take any motion to defend overflights which might resolve 90 per cent of those points. And I fear about UK Nats. I feel there’ll proceed to be methods failures and there’ll proceed to be short-staffing.
“Other than that though, I think this will be a better summer. Capacity will still be constrained in Europe. So I’m hopeful that the experience at the airports – except where there is a Nats failure or a French ATC strike – will be better this year than it was last summer.”
Listen to Simon Calder’s interview with Ryanair chief government Michael O’Leary
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