Christmas travel: Ryanair denies price gouging as one-way flights from UK cost €600

Tomas Doherty

Ryanair has denied price gouging and instead blamed the passenger cap at Dublin Airport as the reason behind high prices for flights this Christmas.

Some seats on services from the UK to Ireland later this week and early next week are costing more than €600.

Ryanair chief executive Michael O'Leary denied profiteering and said passengers who have to pay expensive fares can blame the outgoing Minister for Climate, Eamon Ryan.

"All of this was entirely avoidable if Eamon Ryan had simply sent a letter to the IAA [Irish Aviation Authority] to suspend his ludicrous traffic cap at Dublin Airport," he told Newstalk radio.

The airline boss said huge demand during the Christmas period meant that prices across airlines and routes would rise.

"We know there's the annual pilgrimage home at Christmas. We know there's hundreds of thousands people coming home, but there are 220,000 fewer seats. And therefore it is inevitable that if you have smaller supply, huge demand, prices across the piece will rise, and the highest prices will also rise. And all of this was sadly avoidable."

Earlier this year Mr O'Leary claimed that Government ministers had "cancelled" Christmas due to the passenger cap at Dublin Airport, and predicted that airline fares would hit €500 in the last two weeks of December.

Meanwhile, the closure of Holyhead Port due to damage from Storm Darragh could see ferry services cancelled until after Christmas.

This might result in parcels travelling to and from Ireland being delayed until after the festive season.

It was announced after Storm Darragh that the Port of Holyhead, owned by ferry company Stena Line, was to remain closed until December 20th, with all services cancelled until then.

Taoiseach Simon Harris said on Monday the “seriousness” of the damage was becoming “more apparent as the days go by”.