Ryanair boss issues new warning ahead of the summer holidays

Ryanair are an extremely useful way to travel on a budget, just ask the airline itself.

Only today (27 February) the Irish business took to X (formerly Twitter) to reply to a post asking: "What is a privilege that people act as if it isn't?"

Replying, Ryanair said: "Having an airline that flies you around Europe for €30."

Fair, really. You can't really complain too much about baggage fees when tickets to some of Europe's best destinations go for as little as £15 each way.

For £20, you can go to one gorgeous city dubbed the 'Garden of Europe' to enjoy £2 pints. Bliss.

But chief executive of Ryanair, Michael O'Leary, has issued a warning as summer approaches in what is somewhat of a bitter blow for customers using the company's aviation services.

O'Leary, who has had his run-ins with pie-wielding environmentalists, says the number of aircraft he will have available during the summer months is limited.

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Combined with high demand, it'll mean one thing for sun-seekers.

O'Leary has said ticket prices will have to rise. He reckons by about 10% for the sunnier months. Boeing’s new aircraft deliveries are being delayed, which is the reason for the hike.

Some 205 million passengers are expected to fly with Ryanair this year, the company had earlier estimated.

But speaking at Ryanair's Dublin HQ, O’Leary said: “With less aircraft, maybe we’ll have to bring that 205 million down towards 200 million passengers.

"It might be a scratch below 200 million, we just don’t know at this stage.

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“That probably means that even our growth this year is going to be constrained in Europe, and I think that leads to a higher fare environment across Europe for summer 2024.

"Fares in summer 2024 are going to be up again on summer 2023. Our average air fares in summer 2023 rose 17%.

"We don’t think we’ll see that kind of double-digit fare increase this year.

"We’re doing our budgets based on a fare increase of 5 to 10%, which to me feels kind of reasonable.

“It could be higher than that, it could be lower than that, we don’t really know. If capacity was growing, I think fares would be falling.”

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It comes as Ryanair teams up with online travel agent On The Beach, putting to end a long-running feud between the two companies.

It means the travel agent can now access Ryanair's flights when signing customers up to package holidays.

It comes after the High Court ruled that Ryanair must refund On the Beach for flights that were cancelled during the Covid pandemic, awarding the agent around £2 million.