Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary warns of higher air fares

Chief executive Michael O’Leary said issues limiting the number of available planes mean European airlines will struggle to meet demand for travel during the summer season.

He predicted that Ryanair’s ticket prices will be up to 10pc more expensive compared with the same time last year.

READ MORE: Ryanair flights from Norwich Airport: All you need to know

Mr O’Leary said this is because the carrier’s growth in passenger numbers will be lower than expected because Boeing’s new aircraft deliveries are being delayed.

It comes after the airline announced it would fly three new routes out of Norwich Airport to Mediterranean destinations.

Ryanair will begin flights to Malta, Alicante and Faro on Mondays and Fridays from April 1, as well as a host of return journeys.  

Ryanair will begin flights to Malta, Alicante and Faro on Mondays and Fridays from April 1 (Image: Denise Bradley)

Norwich Airport currently operates flights to 18 destinations in nine countries, with connections to 150 more locations via Amsterdam.

August prices for a return trip to Malta from Norwich will cost holidaymakers around £160, with flights to Faro and Alicante around £190 and £200 respectively.

Ryanair’s original forecast for the year to the end of March 2025 was that it would carry 205 million passengers, up from 183.5 million during the previous 12 months.

Mr O’Leary told reporters at the carrier’s Dublin headquarters: “With less aircraft, maybe we’ll have to bring that 205 million down towards 200 million passengers.

“It might be a scratch below 200 million, we just don’t know at this stage.

“That probably means that even our growth this year is going to be constrained in Europe, and I think that leads to a higher fare environment across Europe for summer 2024.”

Last week Ryanair's chief commercial officer Jason McGuinness warned that smaller UK airports such as Norwich are being put at an “enormous disadvantage” because of air passenger duty (APD).

Passengers with standard tickets leaving the UK are charged APD at a rate of £6.50 for domestic flights and £13 for short-haul trips, putting huge pressure on smaller regional airports.

Mr O’Leary added: “Fares in summer 2024 are going to be up again on summer 2023.

“Our average air fares in summer 2023 rose 17pc.

The fares could increase by 10pc (Image: Nicholas.T.Ansell/PA)

“We don’t think we’ll see that kind of double-digit fare increase this year.

“We’re doing our budgets based on a fare increase of 5pc to 10pc, which to me feels kind of reasonable.

“It could be higher than that, it could be lower than that, we don’t really know.

“If capacity was growing, I think fares would be falling.”

Ryanair has a contract with Boeing for the delivery of 57 new planes by the end of March but he expects to have received only 40 to 45 by then.

He said the US manufacturer “has the Federal Aviation Administration (the US regulator) crawling all over them” since a Boeing 737 Max 9 operated by Alaska Airlines suffered a mid-air blowout on January 5.

Major concerns have been raised about quality control for new Boeing aircraft, sparking a limit in production speed.

Meanwhile, it was announced in July last year than more than 1,000 Pratt & Whitney-built engines would need to be removed from Airbus aircraft due to a safety recall.

Mr O’Leary predicted that airlines such as Wizz Air, Lufthansa and Air France “will be grounding upwards of 20pc of their A320 fleets” because of this.

He added: “If we could get all 57 aircraft deliveries from Boeing in advance before the end of June we would make out like bandits all summer long because we have airports at the moment beating the door down to us.”