Ryanair CEO forecasts historic rise in airfares in Europe
Kyiv • UNN
Ryanair CEO expects airfares in Europe to rise by 10–20% due to a shortage of seats and high fuel prices. The company will cut 20 routes from Belgium.
Next year, Europe is expected to see the “largest-ever” increase in airfares, Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary said on Tuesday. This is due, among other things, to the fact that most airlines have not hedged against rising aviation fuel costs, UNN reports, citing Reuters.
Details
According to O’Leary’s forecast, the number of seats available on flights will decrease next year due to airline bankruptcies and takeovers. Combined with the lack of fuel hedging (price fixing), this will lead to a 20% increase in ticket prices.
“Next year, airfares in Europe will rise — I think by 10%, 15%, and possibly even 20%. I would say that over the next 12 months, we will see the largest-ever increase in the cost of air travel in Europe,” O’Leary said during a press conference in Brussels.
The conflict involving Iran caused a sharp increase in aviation fuel prices, significantly reducing the profitability of airlines that had not taken measures to protect themselves against such fluctuations.
O’Leary said that Ryanair and other European carriers have reliable fuel-price hedging agreements for 2026. In particular, Europe’s largest airline, Ryanair, hedged 80% of its fuel needs at $67 per barrel (as of the end of February, when the conflict began).
At the same time, according to Ryanair’s CEO, for the period after April 2027, most European airlines have almost no fuel prices locked in. In Ryanair’s case, only 15% of fuel costs for next year are fixed at $85 per barrel, while current market prices (spot prices) are approximately twice as high.
In addition
O’Leary arrived in Brussels to announce cuts to 20 routes and more than one million seats on flights from Belgium as part of the airline’s winter schedule. The decision was made in response to the Belgian authorities’ plans to increase the aviation tax: from January, it is expected to rise from the current €2 to €7. The industry veteran also expressed optimism that certification of the Boeing 737 MAX 10 in the United States would be completed as early as this month. This will allow Ryanair to receive 16 of these aircraft at the beginning of 2027.
“Boeing hopes that the new aircraft — the MAX 10 — will be certified by the end of October... We are fairly optimistic that this deadline will be met,” O’Leary told Reuters.
On Tuesday, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is expected to announce that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has approved the operation of the 737 MAX 10 — a process that has been significantly delayed by a glitch in the navigation software, which threatened further certification delays.