Michael O’Leary has defended Ryanair’s prices to Prague as “incredibly good value” in the week Ireland plays Czechia in the FIFA World Cup play-off semi-finals.
News that Ireland would play in Prague meant airline tickets to the Czech capital quickly sold out and new flights were added.
However, the tickets will cost fans significantly more than a typical trip to Prague and Fine Gael Senator Mark Duffy has accused airlines of price gouging.
On Newstalk Breakfast, Ryanair founder Michael O’Leary said he “nearly crashed the car on the M4 this morning” listening to Senator Duffy and that he “couldn’t be more wrong”.
“We have a daily flight to Prague,” Mr O’Leary explained.
“During the draw all the remaining seats on the Wednesday, Thursday, Friday were all sold out.
“So, before the draw was even concluded, we were completely full on our daily flight to Prague.
“What do we do? We added an extra 15 flights going out to Prague and returning from Prague on that week.
“The reality of those flights is that the returns are empty.
“So, while the prices are more expensive than we would normally, if we really wanted to price gouge people, we would have added one or two extra flights - we added 15 extra flights.
“Fares vary on those flights between €300 and €400 each way. The return fare will be between €600 and €700.
“But that has to cover the cost of the empty flights coming the other way.”
Street lanterns and old statues frame the historical buildings on Charles Bridge at dawn in Prague. Picture by: Robertharding / Alamy Stock Photo. Mr O’Leary conceded that Ryanair would make a profit from fans who travel to Prague to see Ireland play but said that it would be “reasonably modest” and that the airline would not do it otherwise.
He added that Ryanair might add further flights to Prague in the days ahead.
“These are reasonably low fares, bearing in mind that for every extra flight we add both ways, there’s two empty legs going the other way,” he said.
“Fans have lots of other options; we still have low fares to places like Berlin.
“Go other [places], get trains, get buses - what Irish fans have done over many years… but a €600 return fare is still incredibly good value compared to the daily fares charged by legacy airlines.”
