RYANAIR has announced that its flights are being sold cheaper than expected this summer.
Anyone still looking for a bargain summer trip should have a look at the airline’s flights, which are lower than last summer, according to CEO Michael O’Leary.
The budget carrier has reported falling quarterly profits in the three months to June 30 when compared with a year ago.
During the same period, the average fare fell 15 per cent to €42 (£35).
O’Leary has said that the airline will have to offer cheaper fares in the coming months to try and “stimulate” the market.
He said: “While (second-quarter) demand is strong, pricing remains softer than we expected, and we now expect (second-quarter) fares to be materially lower than last summer.”
The airline currently has August and September flights for as little as £14.99 available on its website, for anyone looking to find a late bargain.
All they need to do to find them is go on the Ryanair website and, instead of specifying a destination when searching for flights, they can select “any destination”.
From there, they will be able to select which month they want to fly and what day they’d like to fly on, the website will then show them the cheapest destinations to fly to, according to their criteria.
Even though passenger numbers rose by 10 per cent for the same time, to 55.5 million, the airline was still hit financially, with revenue per passenger down by 10 per cent as a whole.
This is due to passengers opting out of paying additional optional fees for things like seat reservation and hold luggage.
Ryanair has said that its performance for the rest of the summer is now “totally dependent” on last-minute bookings in August and September.
The airline is hoping that its cheaper flights will improve those numbers during this quarter.
Customers are typically waiting longer than usual to book summer holidays at the moment, partly as a result of the cost-of-living crisis.
The figures provide the latest suggestion that the post-pandemic boom in pricing enjoyed by carriers is coming to an end.
Other airlines have also recently suggested that they too will have to be tactical when it comes to ticket prices.
Earlier in July, Jet2 said there would only be “modest” price increases this summer amid a wave of later bookings to its European destinations.
German airline Lufthansa has also pointed to “negative market trends”, while Air France-KLM warned of a financial hit after fewer people than expected booked flights to Paris for the forthcoming Olympic Games.
It’s not just the cost of living that’s putting people off air travel this summer either.
Disruption is also playing its part, with a number of different events leading to cancellations and delays already this year.
Mr O’Leary took aim at air traffic controllers across Europe after fewer flights took off over the period, affecting thousands of passengers.
He said: “In the last 10 days of June we suffered a significant deterioration in European air traffic control capacity which caused multiple flight delays and cancellations, especially on first wave morning flights.
“(This makes it) more urgent than ever that the new European Commission and Parliament deliver long-delayed reform of Europe’s hopelessly inefficient air traffic control services.”
Meanwhile, this little-known method could save you hundreds on your flights.
And this is how to find cheap flights last minute.
