Michael O’Leary has said the era of Ryanair’s €10 fares will soon be a thing of the past due to soaring fuel and oil prices.
In an interview with BBC Radio 4’s Best of Today programme, Ryanair Boss O’Leary said he expected Ryanair’s average fares to rise by around €10 over the next five years, from around €40 last year to roughly €50 by 2027.
It comes as O’Leary told Today’s business presenter Sean Farrington: “There’s no doubt that at the lower end of the marketplace, our really cheap promotional fares – the €1 fares, the €0.99 fares, even the €9.99 fares – I think you will not see those fares for the next number of years.”
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“We think people will continue to fly frequently,” he said.
The CEO said he thought people were going to be more conscious about their spending due to the rising inflation rate and cost of living crisis..
He added: “But I think people are going to become much more price sensitive and therefore my view of life is that people will trade down in their many millions.”
“We have seen a pretty strong recovery post-covid, we were one of the more fortunate airlines, during the pandemic we made the conscious decision to keep people employed, and keep our pilots and cabin crew current.”
As flights have become cheaper in recent decades, the number of flights taken has risen, with more people taking short haul flights, on top of an annual holiday.
He said despite the pandemic disrupting travel and causing havoc, Ryanair has had positive growth, and is operating 15% more than pre-covid numbers.
Mr O'Leary said Ryanair had managed the situation better than other airlines because it had been "part lucky and part brave" in its decision to start recruiting and training cabin crew and pilots last November.
“We have suffered some of the airport disruption that other airlines have suffered, but we haven’t cancelled flights because we’re short staffed, we began hiring last November, and we’ve added new aircraft this Summer.”
“We’re operating 15% more than our pre-covid numbers,” he said.
Ryanair is based in Dublin, but operates hundreds of routes in and out of the UK.
O’Leary also highlighted the issue of security queues, and told the broadcaster: “The experience of airports needs to be resolved going into Winter and Summer 2023.”
He admitted that the rising costs of fuel are impacting people's disposable income, O'Leary said he's confident the airline's passenger numbers will remain steady, as lower-cost options will still be popular.
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