As the repercussions of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine widen, budget airlines have cut prices to Poland, Slovakia and the Baltic republics to a few pounds.
While some reports have accused airlines of ramping up fares to exploit the surge in demand from refugees seeking to reach western Europe from states bordering Ukraine such as Poland, Slovakia and Romania, research by The Independent suggests the opposite is happening.
Air fares between the UK and former Eastern bloc countries are very low and falling – with Ryanair halving overnight the cost of a three-hour flight from Tallinn in Estonia in April from above £40 to less than £20.
Prices are so low that, in many cases, a traveller would spend more on a train to the airport than on the hundreds-of-miles-long flight to their destination.
Demand appears to have collapsed on a number of routes to destinations close to the frontiers of Ukraine.
Flights on Friday 11 March, normally a busy day, on the route between Manchester and Krakow have fallen to £25 on Ryanair and £27 on Jet2.
The following day Ryanair is charging just £12.99 – less than the amount of Air Passenger Duty the airline must pay for each passenger.
In the opposite direction, fares are similarly low: for Sunday 13 March from Krakow to Manchester, Jet2 is charging £37, easyJet £25 and Ryanair £10.
Elsewhere, the Leeds-based airline and holiday company Jet2 is suspending its flights to Poland in two weeks’ time, for at least two months.
The firm told ITV News: “Due to current circumstances, we have taken the decision to suspend our flights and city breaks programmes to Krakow from 24 March up to and including 26 May.
“Where customers are affected by any programme changes, we will automatically cancel their booking with a full refund.
“We are planning a phased restart to Krakow from 27 May and we will of course keep customers updated.”
Passengers are being offered full refunds.
Many other UK airports have bargain flights to and from eastern Europe – even over weekends, when fares would normally be high.
Over the first weekend in April, flying on Friday and back on Sunday, a combination of Ryanair outbound from Liverpool to Krakow and an easyJet inbound from the Polish city is £41.
Wizz Air, based in Hungary and with a busy network between the UK and eastern Europe, appears to be particularly hard hit.
It offers a choice of London airports for trip to Bucharest from 1 to 3 April: from Luton airport, the fare is £41 return, while from Gatwick the Romanian capital is available for £52.
Ryanair is charging £52 return from Stansted to Budapest.
The Baltic republics of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia do not border Ukraine but each has a frontier with Russia.
Between Luton and Palanga – on the Lithuanian coast close to the Latvian border – the Wizz Air fare on Monday 28 March is just £7, Inbound seats are being sold at around £7.50. The train/bus combination from London to Luton airport costs £19 one way, almost three times as much.
Europe’s biggest budget airline, Ryanair, has fares from Stansted to Latvia’s capital, Riga, for just £13 on Saturday 12 March, with the same to fly back on the following Wednesday or Friday.
The train between London Liverpool Street and the Essex airport costs £32.70 return – 25 per cent more than the cost of the 2,000-mile-plus round trip.
Neil Taylor, author of the Bradt Guide to Estonia, said: “It is a sad commentary on geographical knowledge in the UK that bookings have dropped somewhat to destinations in eastern Europe and the Baltics, all hundreds of miles from the bombing in Ukraine.
“These countries are granting asylum to thousands of refugees and are crucial in delivering supplies to Ukraine. We should show our gratitude to them by continuing to support their tourism industries.”
All prices researched direct with airlines on the afternoon of Wednesday 9 March.
