Ryanair has announced that it will be adding over 1.5 million additional plane seats for the upcoming Christmas travel season in order to meet growing demand across its network.
“It’s fantastic to see such high demand for travel over the coming weeks as people prepare for their Christmas flights,” Jade Kirwan, Ryanair’s Head of Communications said.
“We have added an additional 1.5 million seats this festive season to meet this demand. We encourage people to book as early as they can,” Kirwan added.
As early as August 2024, Ryanair warned passengers to book Christmas flights early to and from Dublin Airport (DUB), as airfares are rising rapidly due to the artificial 32m traffic cap at Dublin Airport.
Michael O’Leary, CEO of Ryanair said back in August: “Currently today in late Aug, our lowest fares from London to Dublin on Fri 20th, Sat 21st or Sun 22nd December are rapidly approaching €100 ($108) one-way due to this Government’s failure to allow airlines to run extra flights to/from Dublin this Christmas,”
O’Leary added that Ryanair believes air fares to Dublin this Christmas will hit €500 ($540) one-way as Christmas approaches and reduced seat capacity fills.
In December 2023, Ryanair carried 12.54 million passengers, up from 11.52 million passengers in the same month in 2022.