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ARCHIVED - The end of low-cost airfares: Ryanair price hikes signal new age for climate consciousness
Ryanair will increase the cost of its plane tickets by 20 euros each way, but this may not be all bad
by Tom Beck
Ryanair, the standard bearer for low fares and cheap air travel, have announced that they will be raising the price of their plane tickets.
Michael O’Leary, CEO of Ryanair, revolutionised air travel at rock-bottom prices, but in an interview with the Financial Times, Mr O’Leary has now made it clear that those fares must go.
“It’s too cheap for what it is,” he said. “I think it’s absurd that every time I fly to London, the train journey to the centre is more expensive than the airfare.”
The airline already warned that prices would rise this summer thanks to renewed demand, and this July they actually took the decision to increase the cost of its plane tickets by an average of 20 euros each way, mainly in response to increases in the cost of fuel and a reduction of air capacity in the European market.
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The current average basic Ryanair flight within Europe (without adding extra baggage or choosing seats, etc.) costs 37 euros. With the proposed increases in prices, plane tickets with Ryanair will cost between 50 and 60 euros.
This will still make Ryanair the company with the cheapest prices on the market, but it will join the general trend of increasing fares. According to Kiwi.com, airfare from Spain is 45% more expensive this July than the same month last year.
Many have argued for some time now what Mr O’Leary is stating: that air travel is absurdly cheap and that such conditions cannot continue.
Cut-price plane tickets have meant that international tourism has boomed over the last two decades, in line with harmful emissions into the atmosphere and an increase in the amount of fuel taken out of the earth and burnt in combustion engines.
With air travel becoming less affordable, it’s likely that people who used to fly three or four times a year 
will cut down and think twice before flying, helping to reduce air pollution.
will cut down and think twice before flying, helping to reduce air pollution.These rises, combined with a rise in the popularity of camping and staycations and measures such as heavily subsidising trains and other alternative means of public transport, mean that the environment might just get a brief respite of the kind it saw during the Covid lockdown when international travel was severely limited.
While some customers will doubtless complain that Ryanair is betraying its principles and selling out its loyal customers by increasing its prices, the truth is that the days of cheap airfare should be behind us. We can no longer plead ignorance about the climate crisis and our role in it.
Indeed, it could be said that 50 euros is still far too cheap, and plane tickets should be much more expensive to induce passengers to consider other, less polluting, means of transport.
Image: Archive
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