The age-old story of supply and demand looks set to play a major role in European travel in 2022.
Michael O’Leary has warned that the cost of air travel looks set to “dramatically” increase within the next year.
The Ryanair supremo said that he anticipates a major influx of tourists throughout Europe in the summer of 2022, with the knock-on effect of huge demand coinciding with fewer available flights leading to increased prices for both air travel and hotels.
“I think there will be a dramatic recovery in holiday tourism within Europe next year,” said O’Leary while in conversation with the Sunday Times.
“And the reason why I think prices will be dramatically higher is that there’s less capacity,” he continued.
“Take out Thomas Cook (six million seats), Flybe (eight million seats), Norwegian (nearly 24 million seats) – Alitalia’s reducing its fleet by 40%. There is going to be about 20% less short-haul capacity in Europe in 2022 with a dramatic recovery in demand.”
As for plans for his own airline, O’Leary said that Ryanair prices will be cut in order to “grab market share everywhere”.
LISTEN: You Must Be Jokin’ with Aideen McQueen – Faith healers, Coolock craic and Gigging as Gaeilge
